Emanuel Says Immigration Reform Bill Lacks Votes to Pass

WaPo ^ | 6/25/2009 | Michael D. Shear and Spencer S. Hsu

[mojito]

Just hours before President Obama hosts lawmakers for a discussion on immigration at the White House, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel conceded that Obama and his allies on Capitol Hill do not have the votes to pass a comprehensive reform bill.

"If the votes were there, you wouldn't need to have the meeting. You could go to a roll call," Emanuel told reporters during an hour-long breakfast.

About 20 senators and House members are due to arrive at the White House at 2 p.m. for the discussion in the State Dining Room. Aides to the president said the meeting was intended to "launch a policy conversation by having an honest discussion about the issues and identifying areas of agreement and areas where we still have work to do."

The president will announce administrative actions that the White House has already taken to chip away at the issues, including a modernization of computers that allow people to quickly see their immigration status. Officials said the White House hopes to begin the more controversial debate over a comprehensive approach to address illegal immigration later this year.

But Emanuel offered reporters a more realistic assessment, saying that while it is "not impossible" to get immigration reform done this year, it is more likely to be pushed off.

[Pelham]

I’ll bring a hammer.

[Pelham]

“Illegal Immigration first (border fence, beef-up of INS and DEA); deportation roundup second; kicking out illegal Kenyan nationals third.”

Worth repeating. Is there some part of their oath of office that requires Presidents to refuse to enforce the immigration laws? How did we get two in a row like this?

[SunkenCiv]

GWB didn’t have a clear mandate from the 2000 election; ideally, he’d have used 9/11 to get the border fence built, but wouldn’t have been able to get the votes for that one, since the mass-murdering hijackers were 100 per cent Arabs. After the 2002 midterm elections, he had a decent nominal majority in both houses, and 2004 was successful as a policy referendum. But he also has an uncanny sense of which fights he can win and which victories will give him the greatest advantage, and the Demwits and politicians of southernmost states were probably going to oppose building a fence; the former would oppose it because it would give them a wedge issue at the ballot box, the latter because all politics is local. :’(