Fasting Becomes Fruitless To Move Immigration Reform Forward For A Vote

John Boehner, U.S. House Speaker

House Speaker Boehner says, the House GOP leadership has "no intention of ever going to conference on the Senate (immigration) bill," thus killing any hope immigration reform will be brought to the House floor for a vote before the 113th first House session ends in less than two weeks.

By H. Nelson Goodson

November 13, 2013

Washington, D.C. - On Wednesday, U.S. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) told reporters that "we made it clear that we are going to move on a common sense step by step approach in terms on how we deal on immigration. The idea we going to to take up a 1,300 page bill that no one has never read, is what the Senate did, is not going to happen, and frankly, I'll make it clear we have no intention of ever going to conference on the Senate bill...I want us to deal with the issue, but I want to deal on a step by step way." The U.S. Senate passed their immigration reform bill version and Boehner's confirmation that a conference or any negotiations to incorporate ideas to pass a House bill "is not going to happen" for 2013. Speaker Boehner's statement on Wednesday affirms that any hope, efforts and influence by immigrant rights activists around the country of pushing an immigration reform bill forward before the first House session ends is unlikely. Despite Boehner's confirmation that immigration reform is dead for 2013, immigration activists and religious groups began to hold a fasting approach in an attempt to move forward the bill before 2013 ends.

As a last resort for 2013, religious groups have set up a fasting camp near Capitol Hill and other immigrant rights groups will launched a one day fasting in an attempt to resurrect a dying immigration reform movement for 2013. The GOP U.S. House leadership has confirmed that no attempts to bring an immigration reform bill to the floor for a vote will take place before the House of Representatives leave for the holidays and get ready for the upcoming elections and the second 113th session, which begins in January 2014.

The Democrats are being blamed for their failure to pass an immigration bill when they initially had control of both the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate back in 2007. Then U.S. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the former House Speaker failed to bring forward a bill for the first six months of their control. Soon after, the Democrats began to gradually lose control of the U.S. House and including the U.S. Senate. While the Obama administration ramped up the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation quotas and succeeded in deporting at least 2 million of undocumented immigrants, most none criminals from the country.

Immigration activists are focusing on resurrecting their immigration reform movement in the last days of the House session, but no indication has been made public of any new approach in their agenda for 2014. 

But a strong indication is that the immigration reform bill issue is definitely dead for the next six years, depending of who will control the House, Senate and the White House in the next few years.

Boehner's Wednesday brief statement on immigration reform at link: http://alturl.com/yehti