WASHINGTON — The bad blood between House Republicans and President Barack Obama has only worsened since the fight over funding the government and paying its debts, and Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho) said Wednesday that it had doomed any chances for immigration reform.
After Labrador said during an event with conservative members that they could no longer trust the president on immigration, HuffPost asked him a simple question: Is it dead?
“I think it is,” he replied. “For us to go to a negotiation, to the negotiating table with President Obama after what he has done over the last two and a half weeks, I think would be probably a very big mistake.”
Obama told Univision affiliate 34 KMEX on Tuesday that he would turn back to immigration reform immediately after the fiscal issues are dealt with, even as House Republicans look increasingly unwilling to pass immigration reform themselves.
Labrador was once considered a potential broker of immigration reform, bridging the gap between conservative members and Democrats in the same way Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) did in the Senate. Labrador worked with a bipartisan group on a comprehensive immigration reform plan but dropped out of negotiations in June. The group fell apart completely last month after two additional Republicans quit.
Labrador said when he was working with the group he was beginning to feel that immigration reform might be a bad-faith effort from Democrats.
To read the full story: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/16/raul-labrador-immigration-reform_n_4109716.html?ir=Latino+Voices&ref=topbar
Photo: seiu.org