By From Wire Reports

Published: Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2014, 9:09 p.m.
Updated less than a minute ago

WASHINGTON — The ambitious plans of top Republican leaders in the House of Representatives to tackle immigration this year may be in trouble before the House speaker has even had a chance to share his ideas on how to fix problems that have long plagued the nation and, more recently, divided the GOP.

Republicans plan to kick off a three-day retreat this week in which leaders are expected, among other initiatives, to call for legal status for millions of undocumented immigrants.

But several members of Congress' influential Republican Study Committee say a consensus is growing that bringing immigration to the floor this year is a bad idea and might seriously hurt the party in an otherwise positive-looking year.

Even some of the most devoted supporters of an overhaul have backed away. Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, who helped lead a failed bipartisan effort for a comprehensive solution, said he expected committee members, as well as a majority of the Republican coalition, to recommend not pursuing the leadership's plans.

He cited the State of the Union address and President Obama's statements about bypassing Congress to pass executive orders on minimum wage increases and other issues.

“He's willing to go around Congress to do things that we're unwilling to pass. Why would we trust him?” Labrador asked.

Meanwhile, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said a border plan being developed by House Republicans was a “nonstarter” because it would stop short of offering citizenship to the nation's 11 million undocumented immigrants.

The head of the nation's largest labor coalition said the emerging House GOP proposal, which would offer immigrants limited legal status, was “fool's gold” that would be strongly opposed by labor and other key interest groups on the left.

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