Immigration Reform Babeeeee!!!!

Its true that President Obama has a lot on his second-term plate right now. But other than getting a budget deal done, the next thing on the checklist is immigration reform. We're not hearing all that much about this topic lately since the right wing is completely focused on Obamacare and the left wing (except for the real activists) is totally caught up in things like whether or not Elizabeth Warren is going to run in 2016. But getting something done on this issue is not only important for the 11 million undocumented workers in this country right now, it is a real test for how our political challenges will be affected by this country's changing demographics. In other words, the Republicans can't afford to lose this one and hope to survive as a party.

There are some signs that Speaker Boehner is aware of all this and might have a plan in mind. First of all, he recently hired Becky Tallent as his immigration policy director.

Boehner’s decision to bring Tallent on as a top aide is as encouraging to supporters of reform as it is disappointing to opponents. Mark Krikorian of the hardline Center for Immigration Studies derided Tallent as “McCain’s amnesty captain” on Twitter and warned Boehner was signalling his intention to push for reform.

But you have to travel the back alleys of wingnutistan in order to get some ideas about what he has in mind. Both Red State and Breibart are reporting that Boehner plans to wait until after filing deadlines have passed for primary challengers to incumbent House members to make a move on immigration reform. They are basing this on what Boehner has supposedly told people behind closed doors.

...in recent weeks, various Texas business interests have told Quorum Report that Boehner has been telling them that he will start holding immigration votes not long after the filing deadline has passed.

Who knows whether this is true or not? But it does make some political sense and so I think its possible. We've known for a while now that the votes are there in the House to pass immigration reform and the only thing holding it up was Boehner. Perhaps the Speaker is smart enough to figure out that he doesn't want to go into the 2014 midterms facing a strong Latino backlash due to his failure to move on this issue.

If so, we'll be chalking up yet another MAJOR accomplishment to President Obama's list of reforms. As he said to the Fast for Families folks..."it is not a question of whether immigration reform will pass, but how soon." Your call, Speaker Boehner.