While the catch and release program continues.
Via The Hill
The White House has crafted an explicit strategy when it comes to dealing with House Republicans on immigration: give them space.
Senior administration officials say they want to give Republicans as much breathing room as they need to negotiate a bill in their own divided party and then see what materializes.
It’s a delicate balancing act for Obama, who wants to secure an immigration reform law for his presidency and favors a path to citizenship for the nation’s estimated 11 million illegal immigrants.
He must negotiate that outcome with a House Republican conference that does not trust him, and that worries any law it passes might not be enforced by the president.
It is also a GOP conference that is unlikely to sign on to a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. House GOP principles this week include a legal status for the undocumented, but not a path to citizenship.
As a result, officials say Obama won’t go on a barnstorming tour across the country to apply pressure on the issue.
Instead, every three to four weeks, the public might see Obama participating in an Spanish-language television interview or speaking about the issue in a public setting, just as he has done in the past.
Obama and the White House are also being careful with their pronouncements on the GOP principles.
On Friday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters that Obama won’t “prejudge” potential legislation.
Carney noted that Republicans in 2012 talked of illegal immigrants self-deporting, and that the White House is seeing movement on the issue.
“That’s a good thing,” he said, adding that Republicans are at the beginning of the process, “not the end.”
The give-them-room strategy was in full display during the State of the Union address earlier this week. Obama only mentioned the phrase “immigration” three times in a nearly 7,000-word address. He urged lawmakers “serious about economic growth” to “fix our broken immigration system.”
“When people come here to fulfill their dreams—to study, invent, and contribute to our culture—they make our country a more attractive place for businesses to locate and create jobs for everyone,” Obama said. “So let’s get immigration reform done this year.”