On Tuesday, President Barack Obama invited House Democrats to the White House to strategize on amnesty. According to the White House, Obama discussed the “importance of increasing the minimum wage, strengthening education, passing common sense immigration reform,” and other legislative priorities.
He will reportedly meet with Senate Democrats on Wednesday.
The White House emphasized that Obama “will continue to take action through executive authority,” even though he “stressed the importance of working with Congress on their shared priorities” like “equal pay for equal work” and extending unemployment benefits.
Obama said last week that he may be open to the House GOP’s “immigration principles,” and top amnesty advocate Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) said he believed that the immigration principles would eventually allow the country’s illegal immigrants to be put on a pathway to citizenship.
“You know what, the Republicans aren’t saying they must permanently stay in the status,” he said. “That is not what they are saying. So there isn’t any permanent second-class citizenship, as I’ve read. Now a lot of this is going to be in the specifics.”
Gutierrez has said that this year may be the last chance for amnesty, and he urged Democrats and Republicans to “stand in the middle” on the issue.
As Breitbart News reported, at least 80% of Republicans who spoke at a close door immigration strategy meeting were against moving immigration reform bills forward, and support from Democrats like Obama and Gutierrez may make it tougher for Boehner to convince Republicans to get on board.
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