Free Republic

Three influential conservative groups on Tuesday urged Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to pursue immigration reform in the House. In a letter to Boehner, American Action Forum President Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist, and American Conservative Union Chairman Al Cardenas said their groups support many of the key elements in the immigration reform bill recently passed by the Senate, including the pathway to citizenship.

Congressional Democrats are drawing a firm line in the immigration debate: No reform without a path to citizenship. The four Democratic members of the Senate Gang of Eight pressed that point to their House counterparts in a closed-door meeting Tuesday morning, and attendees made it clear that without a pathway to citizenship, immigration reform won’t happen.

A small group of Senate and House Republicans are meeting Monday night to discuss how to pass an immigration overhaul through Congress. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who has been hungry to rewrite the nation’s immigration laws this Congress, is attending the session. -snip- Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) is involved in the planning, according to two sources.

But here, Boehner runs into a vicious circle: The more Democratic votes he needs, the more he will have to move the legislation to the left. And the more he does that, the fewer Republican votes he will attract. Eventually, he might be left with the Senate version of immigration reform, which makes a mockery of border security by throwing resources at the problem but requiring no solution before legalization begins. Boehner’s reassurance that he will not bring a bill to the floor without a majority of his own caucus behind it offers no consolation. A majority of the House...

Has the moment for immigration reform passed? There's a school of thought growing within the GOP that argues the party doesn't need to win over Latino voters as badly as it needs to expand its popularity among white voters. -snip- Major Republican donors remain adamant in their desire to see Congress pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill. They see the demographic reality that the national electorate is becoming less white, and they're firm in the belief that the GOP needs to connect with a more diverse universe of voters. Groups funded by such donors are preparing a concerted effort to...