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by John Lantigua | March 25th, 2014

With immigration reform legislation blocked by the GOP leadership in the U.S. House, Democrats are trying a legislative maneuver to bring to the floor HR 15, a bill that resembles the comprehensive reform legislation passed by the Senate last June. The maneuver is called a discharge petition and it is a way to go around the committee process and bring a bill directly to the floor. The GOP controls the House Judiciary Committee and that is where immigration legislation is stuck. The problem for the minority Democrats is that they control 199 seats while Republicans hold 233 and it is doubtful they will attract enough GOP members to make it work. In fact, they may not attract any because even Republicans in favor of immigration reform wont anger their leadership by voting for the petition. Without much chance of success, what Democrats may be trying to accomplish is to demonstrate to their Latino supporters that it is, in fact, the Republicans who are blocking immigration reform. Republicans have said they are wary of passing immigration legislation because they dont trust President Barack Obama to enforce parts of any law he doesnt like. That position has angered some reform activists. Republicans can try to blame the president for the lack of progress on legislation, but their response to the discharge petition makes it clear that the obstacle to legislation is with them, said Frank Sharry, executive director of Americas voice, a pro-reform group. But not all reform activists are sympathetic to the Democrats maneuver. Cristina Jimenez of United We Dream launched an attack this week in The Huffington Post. Without dozens of Republicans on board, a discharge petition isnt a viable political strategy to break the logjam in Congress, Jimenez wrote. House Democrats should instead focus 100 percent of their energy on pressuring the White House to halt deportations They cannot simply seek political cover by gathering meaningless petition signatures.. Lately, many Latino political organizations have been voicing their discontent with the Democratic administration of President Barack Obama, because of the high number of undocumented people being deported almost 2 million since Obama took office in 2009. Obama won 71 percent of the Latino vote in 2012, but some leaders have warned Democrats they are risking Latino support if the deportations continue. We cannot continue to push legislative strategies with the slimmest of possibilities of success while our families are torn apart at a rate never before experienced, Jimenez wrote. The reckless enforcement machine presided over by President Obama exists not just because of Republican extremism and obstructionism, but also because of Democratic posturing and complicity.

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Tim Burke, Publisher, The Palm Beach Post.

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Immigration reform activists at odds on Democrat maneuver to bring bill to the House floor