Political Irony

Just a week after raising hopes that the GOP would finally do something about immigration reform, House Speaker John Boehner did a complete flip flop and said that Republicans will again refuse to do anything about it. And then he blamed Obama, saying “There’s widespread doubt about whether this administration can be trusted to enforce our laws.”

Boehner’s claim that Obama would not enforce immigration laws is total bullshit. Obama has more aggressively enforced laws against illegal immigrants than any other president in history. Conservatives have even run ads touting this fact in an effort to sway Latinos to vote against Obama.

Now that’s hypocrisy — claiming that Obama is soft on illegal immigrants while running ads denouncing him for aggressive deporting of illegal immigrants.

The real reason is that massive GOP gerrymandering after the last census means that Latinos make up less than 10% of voters in most Republican districts, while red-meat conservative voters would likely punish GOP politicians if they stray from their traditional racist ways. Or as a Latino Republican congressman from Texas put it “If you were the Republicans and you think you’ve got the Democrats on a good issue, like Obamacare, why would you muddle the message before you go into an election?” Another Republican congressman suggested that Boehner might lose his speakership if he pursues an immigration bill in a midterm election year.

In other words, pure craven politics.

Boehner has claimed that immigration reform is a top priority of the GOP, while not allowing a single immigration bill to come to the House floor. House committees have approved five separate bills, but the Speaker has not allowed any of them to come to a vote. The Senate approved their own bill, but Boehner declared he would not allow a vote on that bill either.

Apparently, some Republicans have not changed their stance since Mitt Romney endorsed “self deportation” for illegal immigrants.