The problem with your "trust but verify" strategy is that you have to place your trust in Boehner. Meanwhile, Boehner and the entire GOPe are invested in getting an amnesty bill passed. I would be happy to trust if the person who was running the House was trustworthy. It all comes back to who is on the conference committee. And it comes back to one other thing: the pressure that will be on the conference members from the House side to make a deal with the Senate. It will be immense. Even pretty good conservatives will be hard pressed not to give in some, and come back to the House with a deal. Meanwhile, the Senate will hold fast to the principle of a pathway to citizenship, and the enforcement provisions will be meaningless.
In those kind of negotiations, you need to be willing to walk away. The GOPe's biggest problem in dealing with Obama these past few years is they refuse to do that, whether it is the budget, the debt ceiling or any other issue. They always think they need to make a deal, and that gives the other side leverage.
So, all things considered, I don't see any way that the House can proceed down this path without it being a disaster. As the computer said in War Games, the only sane choice is not to play.
Actually I'm not trusting Boehner, I think you can see that from my posts. What I am trusting is they are getting serious heat about this bill, what I am trusting is they don't want a repeat of 2006.
I'm also guessing he knows what will happen if he takes the GOPe route, which is why I think he's killing the bill without saying so. I could be wrong, but I see good reasons to think I'm right at this point.
I hope you're calling, writing, faxing your rep and Boehner/Cantor's offices. That's the one thing you should be doing. We can't just whine about what they might do, we need to work at keeping the pressure on.