GOP’s devious immigration trick: Why Democrats have a looming dilemma

What would Democrats do if Republicans said yes to permanent legal status -- but no citizenship -- for immigrants?

After talking it over with John Boehner last night, Joe Biden says he’s pretty confident that House Republicans will be able to pass a consensus immigration reform bill.

According to Nancy Pelosi, she believes Republicans will adopt a reasonable position on immigration reform that most if not all Democrats will ultimately support.

In his State of the Union address, President Obama was much less critical of House Republicans for stalling immigration reform — “Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have acted, I know that members of both parties in the House want to do the same” — than for allowing emergency unemployment benefits to lapse — “this Congress needs to restore the unemployment insurance you just let expire for 1.6 million people” — or for attacking healthcare reform — “let’s not have another 40-something votes to repeal a law that’s already helping millions of Americans like Amanda. The first 40 were plenty.”

Suddenly immigration reform doesn’t look nearly as comatose as many observers, including myself, believed it was just a few weeks ago. So the question of the hour is, What will the price of resuscitating it be? And I’m not sure Democrats have thought through whether they’re ready to accept the price Republicans might settle on.

Continued at Link:

http://www.salon.com/2014/01/30/gops_devious_immigration_trick_why_democrats_have_a_looming_dilemma/