With the clock ticking on the legislative year the chance for comprehensive immigration reform to be passed looks dim.
Yet, the conversation still is a daily fixture in the news cycle.
Today is no exception.
The Senate passed a bill back in June, but the gridlock remains in the US House of Representatives. Just last week Speaker Boehner made it clear that he would not be going to conference with the Senate bill.
Still, some have suggested the idea of passing immigration in a piecemeal approach, passing the various components of the comprehensive immigration reform in fragments.
Today, President Obama said that he doesn’t necessarily disagree with that approach. Speaking at a Wall Street Journal forum The President said, “If they want to chop that thing up in five pieces, as long as all five pieces get done, I don’t care what it looks like.”
This of course is a different opinion than the President had back in October, when it was made known that he would veto such a measure.
When the Republican leadership first floated the notion that they would take a piecemeal approach White House spokesperson, Amy Brundage said, “these piecemeal efforts are not serious, and they are no way to run a government.”
Yet, in the immediate aftermath Congressman Luis Gutierrez (D.–IL) tweeted a statement in support of the President’s comments.
The Congressman endorsed the notion of the piecemeal approach saying, “Think of it as a multiple courses that make up a dinner. A salad and side dish are not enough to call it a full meal. But if we get several different dishes together and they make up, as a group, serious immigration reform, then we can work with Republicans, provided none of the individual dishes make us so sick to our stomachs that we much leave the table.”
Perhaps this change of tune is meant to bring the House GOP back to the bargaining table.
