WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has the upper hand in the fierce struggle over immigration now taking shape, with a veto pen ready to kill any Republican move to reverse his executive order, Democrats united behind him and GOP congressional leaders desperate to squelch talk of a government shutdown or even impeachment.
With the public favoring changes in the immigration system, the Republicans’ best short-term response appears to be purely rhetorical: that the president is granting amnesty to millions and exceeding his constitutional authority in the process. Beyond that, their hopes of reversing his policies appear to be either a years-long lawsuit or the 2016 presidential election.
Neither of those is likely to satisfy Tea Party adherents in Congress — or the Republican presidential contenders vying for support among party activists who will play an outsized role in early primaries and caucuses just over a year away.
“We alone, I say it openly, we the Senate are waiting in our duty to stop this lawless administration and its unconstitutional amnesty,” said Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
House Speaker John Boehner and Senate leader Mitch McConnell aren’t interested in impeachment. Nor are they interested in provoking a government shutdown as a way to block spending needed to carry out Obama’s order, viewing that as a poor way to embark on a new era of Republican control of Congress.
“We’re considering a variety of options. But make no mistake. When the newly elected representatives of the people take their seats, they will act,” said McConnell, who will become majority leader when his party assumes control of the Senate in January.
In the interim, Democrats interrupted their squabbling over dispiriting midterm election losses.
“The last two weeks haven’t been great weeks for us,” said New York Rep. Joe Crowley. “The president is about to change that.”
The political debate is well underway, although the two parties seem to be appealing to different segments of the electorate. Polls show that the country as a whole and especially Latinos favor allowing immigrants to remain in the country and work even if here without legal permission. Conservatives tend to prefer deportation.
Republicans argue that Obama is forfeiting any chance of working with Congress to achieve immigration reform. Democrats counter that it’s been about 17 months since the Senate passed the bipartisan bill.
