Democrats to White House: Immigration's your call
By MANU RAJU and SEUNG MIN KIM | 8/14/14 5:04 AM EDT Updated: 8/14/14 10:03 AM EDT



Senate Democratic leaders are grappling with how far to push President Barack Obama on immigration before the crucial midterm elections.

For all the insistence that Obama take bold action — and despite a furious push from immigration activists — there’s palpable fear that Obama could cause trouble for the Senate’s most vulnerable Democrats if he decides to circumvent Congress before the elections to make immigration changes through executive action. Such a move could complicate the reelection bids of Democrats in red states like Arkansas, North Carolina, Louisiana and Alaska — races that could determine whether the party will maintain its grip on the Senate.

The dynamic is leaving the Senate’s most powerful Democrats in a jam. Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and Sen. Patty Murray of Washington all called for executive action to halt deportations. In March, Schumer even said the White House should move on the matter “in October.”

But now the leaders are coy. Representatives for each of the senators refused to say this week whether their bosses want the president to move before November or wait until after the elections.

“The timing of it is entirely up to him,” Durbin spokesman Ben Marter said of the president.

Democrats are trying to shift focus back to the Republican controlled House, where Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has already told Obama he has no plans to act on immigration this year.

“If House Republicans would just do their job and pass an immigration reform bill that fixes a broken system, then we wouldn’t even be having this conversation,” said Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson, who declined to comment further.

Added a Schumer spokesman: “The president would not be forced to even contemplate taking independent action to cope with our broken system had House Republicans not spent more than a year blocking the Senate’s already-passed bipartisan immigration reform legislation.” The spokesman also declined to weigh in further.

The White House declined to comment.

The debate reflects the balancing act that Democrats are walking on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue when it comes to immigration. Obama and Democratic congressional leaders are weighing calls from activists to do something to stem deportations but risk going too far and flipping the Senate to the GOP. That would give Republicans full control of Congress and an even more powerful platform to block immigration reform.

The GOP is already beginning to pounce on the issue, making immigration reform an issue in key Senate races.

Obama administration officials are deep into their review of immigration enforcement practices and are expected to take steps within weeks to ease deportations of certain immigrants living in the United States illegally — though the exact timing is a subject of hot speculation.

Though he long insisted that he had little legal authority to act on immigration, Obama said in June that he would take executive action on deportations this summer after it became clear House Republicans wouldn’t move a bill — heeding demands from Democratic leaders and immigration advocates, who blasted the administration for deporting the highest number of undocumented immigrants of any president.

The president is unlikely to halt deportations for all undocumented immigrants who would have become legalized under the Senate’s comprehensive reform bill that passed last year – the top demand of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and immigrant-rights organizations. But the administration is looking into relief for smaller populations based on criteria such as family ties or how long they have lived in the United States.

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In a Univision interview this week, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) singled out family ties, saying parents of U.S. citizens or young undocumented immigrants should be granted the same protections as the so-called “Dreamers” who were shielded under a 2012 Obama administration directive. Pelosi also backs the call from Latino lawmakers to protect the estimated 8 million undocumented immigrants who would have qualified under the Senate bill, a spokeswoman said — a position that Durbin and Schumer have also endorsed.

“It would be my hope that the president’s lawyers would advise him on the broadest possible prosecutorial discretion,” Pelosi said during the interview.

With the prospects that the fallout could hurt their incumbents in conservative states, Democratic leaders in the Senate want little ownership of the timing of the president’s decision. At the same time, they don’t want to anger pro-immigration groups by publicly siding with red-state Democrats even though the Senate leadership has aggressively tried to protect their vulnerable members from taking tough votes and being cornered into uncomfortable positions all year.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/0...ng-109998.html