White House patience with House Republicans who are stalling passage of an immigration reform bill has finally been exhausted. While both the Senate and the White House hoped to pass comprehensive immigration reform, the House of Representatives is rejecting those efforts and instead attacking different portions of the Senate proposal.
Many of the alternatives that the House of Representatives has come up with can hardly be called a compromise with the Senate’s bill. This lack of cooperation has caused the White House staff to publicly criticize what they consider less than satisfactory propositions from the House GOP.
Senior adviser Dan Pfeiffner condemned one House proposal that would leave millions of immigrants in the United States permanently undocumented calling it “cruel hypocrisy.” Tensions escalated as White House press secretary Jay Carney honed his frustration on House Speaker John Boehner. Carney went as far as to call Boehner’s self proclaimed declaration that he is committed to handling the country’s immigration system “a little laughable.”
The Speaker of the House has made clear that Republican leadership in that chamber will not even consider the Senate bill passed last month. Although the Speaker has voiced his determination to fix an immigration system he has admitted is broken, he has not disclosed whether he favors a path to citizenshipfor the millions of undocumented immigrants currently living in this country.
Now, an aggravated White House must find a balance between pressuring those House members who oppose the proposed legislation and not alienating the support of those Representatives who are already backing the bill.
