Nancy Pelosi floats new strategy to pressure GOP on immigration

With the fall window for enactment of a big immigration overhaul closing rapidly, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi has come up with a new strategy to force House Republicans to bring legislation to the floor.

An aide familiar with the strategy said the Pelosi plan is to introduce a bipartisan bill nearly identical to the one that passed the Senate Judiciary Committee last May, with the support of key Republicans led by Florida’s Marco Rubio and Arizona’s John McCain.That legislation includes a path to citizenship for the nation’s estimated 11 million immigrants who entered the country without authorization.

The bill is intended to “put increased pressure on Republicans who were vocally supportive of comprehensive immigration reform in August,” the aide said.

That list includes a handful of California Republicans from districts with large Latino populations, including David Valadao, a freshman Republican from Hanford in Kings County, Devin Nunes of Tulare, and Jeff Denham of Turlock in Stanislaus County.

A spokesperson for Valadao said he is “open to working with anyone dedicated to solving our nation’s broken immigration system, regardless of political party.” Comprehensive immigration reform is one of Valadeo’s top priorities, she said, because current policy has “serious consequences for thousands of families in the United States” and affects many industries in his district that rely on immigrant labor, especially agriculture.

Nunes was less receptive. “If this were a serious proposal, Rep. Pelosi would have held discussions on it with Republican members of Congress who support comprehensive immigration reform,” Nunes replied in an e-mail. “Since she has not done that, it’s clear her proposal is just more political theater geared toward exploiting the issue for votes rather than solving the problem.”

The legislation has been driven by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and follows the failure of a bipartisan Gang of Seven effort in the House that collapsed for lack of support from House GOP leaders.

With that waning strategy out of the way, it’s now “put up or shut up” time for Republicans, the aide said.

As a gesture of bipartisanship, San Francisco Democrat would also include in her legislation a House Republican bill to tighten border security that passed unanimously out of the House Homeland Security Committee in May, sponsored by chair Michael McCaul of Texas.

The Pelosi legislation would jettison a Senate amendment that would spend $38 billion more on the Southern border, a sum that many members in both parties think excessive, dismissively referred to as “border candy” to corral the Republican votes that led to strong bipartisan approval of the Senate bill last June.

Immigration reform advocate Frank Sharry, head of America’s Voice, said it is unlikely that House Republican leaders would allow Pelosi’s bill to reach the floor for a vote. But he said it adds to pressure the GOP is already feeling from technology companies, the agriculture industry, the Chamber of Commerce and other business groups that want more immigrant labor. Republicans have also been under pressure to show a more tolerant face to immigrants after badly losing the Asian and Latino vote in last year’s election.

Sharry said Pelosi is sending a message stating what Democrats will vote for, saying, “We will pressure you and we will work with you because you have to come to us if you want to get it done.” He said given expected Republican defections, Republicans will have to break their “Hastert Rule” of passing only legislation that has the support of nearly all Republicans, and come to Democrats for votes.

House minority leader Nancy Pelosi

House minority leader Nancy Pelosi

Carolyn Lochhead