Shortly after the U.S. government shutdown ended, President Barack Obama declared that he wanted immigration legislation back on Congress’s agenda, with the goal of passage by year’s end. Some fellow Democrats are in no hurry. 
 
 Their concern: a compromise with Republicans might take the edge off an issue that tops the agenda for Hispanics, a group that gave Obama 71 percent of its votes in the 2012 presidential election. Democrats want to hold onto that decisive margin in their bid to keep control of the U.S. Senate and win a House majority in next year’s congressional races. 
 
 “There are some Democrats who would rather get it done -- and others who would rather have the issue” linger, said Tamar Jacoby, president of ImmigrationWorks USA, a network of business groups that promotes legal immigration. “Either way, they win,” said Jacoby, who has spoken with many Democratic lawmakers. “I hope Obama wants a bill.” 
 
 The reluctance of some Democrats to press the issue now is only one of the hurdles facing legislation this year. A majority of House Republicans oppose providing a pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers. And a White House-backed push by pro-immigration groups -- including high-technology companies eager to obtain visas for workers -- was derailed by the 16-day government shutdown and fight over the debt limit. 
 
 That confrontation, some Republicans say, further poisoned the president’s relations with the party. 
 
 ‘No Discussion’ 
 
 “There’s no discussion about immigration” by either party, said Texas Republican John Carter, who last month left a bipartisan House group that was working on a bill. “I have a heart for fixing immigration, but not sure the will is there.” 
 
 With the fiscal crisis temporarily resolved, the president has been forced to focus on fixing website failures on his health-care law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. 
 
 Speaking to reporters at the White House today, spokesman Jay Carney said the questions surrounding the health-care law shouldn’t hold up progress on immigration. “There’s no connection between the Affordable Care Act and comprehensive immigration reform,” he said. 
 
 Obama this morning urged Congress to approve legislation, casting the bill as a way to boost the U.S. economy. 
 
 “We should pass immigration reform,” the president said at a White House event. “It’s good for our economy, it’s good for our national security, it’s good for our people, and we should do it this year.” 
 
 Political Repercussions 
 
 He hinted of political repercussions to come for Republicans who prevent legislation from moving forward. 
 
 “Anyone still standing in the way of this bipartisan reform should at least have to explain why,” he said. “It’s up to Republicans in the House to decide if reform becomes a reality or not.” 
 
 The fate of the legislation rests largely in the hands of House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, who must decide whether to bring a bill to the full House. 
 
 The Senate in June passed an immigration bill on a bipartisan vote that included a path to citizenship for the country’s estimated 11 million undocumented workers. 
 
 Supporters of immigration legislation say if Obama pushes hard, it might make it tougher for Republicans to support a priority of the Democratic administration. 
 
 “If he leans into it too aggressively, it makes it harder for Republicans to get to ‘yes,’” said Frank Sharry, executive director of Washington-based America’s Voice. “He wants a result so badly that he’s willing to step back so Republicans can step forward.” 
 
 Immigration First 
 
 The president has no nationwide barnstorming tour scheduled to promote the issue, according to administration officials, who asked for anonymity to discuss internal strategy. 
 
 In remarks after the partial government shutdown ended last week, Obama listed immigration first among three legislative priorities, along with action on the budget and passage of a farm bill. 
 
 He then scolded the same Republican lawmakers whose votes he’ll need for the House to approve Senate-passed legislation. 
 
 “There are folks on the other side who think that my policies are misguided,” he said. “We shouldn’t fail to act on areas that we do agree or could agree just because we don’t think it’s good politics, just because the extremes in our party don’t like the word ‘compromise.’” 
 
 ‘Same People’ 
 
 Democrats say Republicans will suffer politically if they fail to move a bill forward. “We are going to hold Republicans accountable for everything: the bad things they do and the good things that they don’t do,” said Representative Steve Israel of New York, chairman of the House Democratic campaign committee. 
 
 Should Republicans block legislation, that would create an opening for Democrats to paint them as obstructionists, say some lawmakers, who argue that Republican opposition to a bill could be paired with the party’s role in the government shutdown. 
 
 “The same people who caused the government shutdown and stopped us from opening the government for two and a half weeks are the people who are blocking immigration reform,” said Representative Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat. 
 
 While House Republican leaders have expressed interest in moving forward with legislation, many party lawmakers say Obama’s decision not to negotiate over the shutdown and debt ceiling has soured relations. 
 
 Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, said the president’s tactics undermined his efforts to build a consensus. 
 
 Limited Window 
 
 “Now, this notion that they’re going to get in a room and negotiate a deal with the president on immigration is much more difficult to do,” Rubio said in the Oct. 20 interview, “because of the way that president has behaved towards his opponents over the last few weeks.” 
 
 Advocates for an immigration overhaul, including Jacoby, see a limited congressional window for movement on comprehensive legislation, possibly limited to the next several weeks before new fiscal deadlines hit in the coming months. 
 
 Some Democrats have hinted that action could come further in the future, possibly in the early summer after primary election filing deadlines are past. Then, they say, Republicans will begin turning their focus to the general election, making them more eager to take up the legislation as a way to woo Hispanic voters in battleground states such as Florida, Nevada and Colorado. 
 
 “I’m going to do everything I can to get it done this year,” Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, told Univision television on Oct. 18. “But remember this is a two-year Congress.” 
 
 Coalition Lobbies 
 
 A coalition of business groups, religious leaders and agricultural companies has spent much of the year lobbying for legislation. Next week, the Partnership for a New American Economy, an association of mayors and business leaders, is flying in 400 business, religious and technology leaders to make the case for a bill on Capitol Hill. They’re targeting House Republicans from more than 20 states. 
 
 Anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, the American Farm Bureau, the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, FWD.US, an advocacy group co-founded by Facebook Inc. (FB) Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will join them for a rally in urging Republicans to take action. 
 
 The Partnership for a New American Economy was formed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP. 
 
 ‘Conservative Movement’ 
 
 “The goal is to say. ‘Look, this is the conservative movement,’” said Jeremy Robbins, director of the Partnership for a New American Economy. “This is good for the economy, it’s good for America and it’s good for the party.” 
 
 Boehner has said the House won’t back the Senate bill and instead will take action on smaller-scale measures. Speaking to reporters in Washington yesterday, he said he’s still hopeful the House will move on legislation. Senate leaders say they won’t support scaled-down bills. 
 
 The House Judiciary Committee has approved legislation dealing with enforcement, employment verification, and agricultural and high-skilled workers. 
 
 California Republican Darrell Issa, the chairman of the House Oversight panel, is working on a proposal that would offer temporary legal status to qualifying undocumented immigrants, according to spokesman Frederick Hill. 
 
 Lawmakers will also need to shift to the budget as deadlines approach in December, January and February for funding the government and raising the debt ceiling. Representative Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican, said an immigration revamp is “dead” until Democrats and Republicans resolve those issues. 
 
 The bitterness left over from the recent budget battle will be hard to overcome, say some lawmakers. 
 
 “He’s tried to destroy the Republican Party,” Representative Raul Labrador, an Idaho Republican, said of Obama, at a forum of Republicans on Oct. 16. “Anything we do right now with this president on immigration will be with that same goal in mind, which is to destroy the Republican Party and not to get good policies.” 
 
 To contact the reporters on this story: Lisa Lerer in Washington at llerer@bloomberg.net; Roxana Tiron in Washington at rtiron@bloomberg.net 
 
 To contact the editors responsible for this story: Steven Komarow at skomarow1@bloomberg.net; Jodi Schneider at jschneider50@bloomberg.net ||||| CAMBRIDGE, Md. — The House Republican leadership is trying to sell their colleagues on a series of broad immigration principles, including a path to legal status for those here illegally. 
 
 Speaker John Boehner’s leadership team introduced the principles at their annual policy retreat here. Top Republicans circulated a tightly held one-page memo titled “standards for immigration reform” toward the tail-end of a day that include strategy conversations about Obamacare, the economy and the national debt. 
 
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 In the private meeting where the language was introduced, Boehner (R-Ohio) told Republicans that the standards are “as far as we are willing to go.” 
 
 (PHOTOS: House Republican retreat) 
 
 “Nancy Pelosi said yesterday that for her caucus, it is a special path to citizenship or nothing,” Boehner said, according to a source in the room. “If Democrats insist on that, then we are not going to get anywhere this year.” 
 
 Boehner said the standards represent “a fair, principled way for us to solve this issue.” 
 
 The strategy marks a shift for House Republicans. In 2013, Boehner’s chamber ignored the bipartisan immigration reform bill passed by the Senate. But toward the end of last year and early this year, Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) began hashing out this approach to rally Republicans toward reform. 
 
 “It’s important to act on immigration reform because we’re focused on jobs and economic growth, and this is about jobs and growth,” Boehner said in his pitch in the closed meeting. “Reform is also about our national security. The safety and security of our nation depends on our ability to secure our border, enforce our laws, improve channels for legal entry to the country, and identify who is here illegally.” 
 
 (PHOTOS: Immigration reform rally on the National Mall) 
 
 Embracing legalization is a modest change for Republican leaders — some of them signaled openness to the idea last year. For a Republican Party that advocated “self-deportation” as recently as 2012, it’s a massive shift. 
 
 Some Republicans fear of the political fallout from immigration reform, but the proposal suggests GOP leaders are taking the long view: Republicans need to woo the booming Hispanic population to stay relevant. 
 
 At the private meeting where the proposal was unveiled, lawmakers talked about their distrust that President Barack Obama will enforce the law, according to sources inside of the room. Ryan and Boehner spoke in favor of the effort, but high-profile conservatives like Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) and Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) were more suspect of the reform push. 
 
 “Nobody, even those who want to get this done, trusts the president,” Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) said in a phone interview Thursday evening. “And I understand it, because I don’t either.” 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: Nancy Pelosi’s tough times) 
 
 But legislation on some of the key components of the principles, most notably the legalization part, have not been released and it remains to be seen how the full set of principles are received by rank-and-file House Republicans — many who have been skeptical of acting on immigration reform this year. 
 
 The principles stress that undocumented immigrants will have to go through the current immigration system and complete several prerequisites. Criminals will not be eligible for legalization. 
 
 “These persons could live legally and without fear in the U.S., but only if they were willing to admit their culpability, pass rigorous background checks, pay significant fines and back taxes, develop proficiency in English and American civics, and be able to support themselves and their families (without access to public benefits),” according to a draft of the document. 
 
 A broad swath of pro-reform groups — from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to the liberal-leaning America’s Voice — welcomed the principles. But one concern already being raised by Democrats and immigration reform advocates off Capitol Hill is language in the principles that call for “specific enforcement triggers” to be in place before undocumented immigrants can get on the legalization track. 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: Sandra Fluke may seek Henry Waxman House seat) 
 
 That section is meant to make sure that the Obama administration — and future presidents — enforce any immigration laws that Congress may pass. One of the most prominent immigration actions from Obama has been halting the deportations of young undocumented immigrants who qualify, known as Dreamers — a move that was done without the blessing of Congress. 
 
 But Democrats and advocates worry those “triggers” will be overly restrictive — preventing millions of undocumented immigrants from beginning the process to become legalized. 
 
 “It leaves them vulnerable to deportation for God knows how long,” Kevin Appleby, the director of migration policy for the pro-reform U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in an e-mail. 
 
 Ana Avendaño, the director of immigration and community action for the AFL-CIO, also called the trigger issue a “serious concern” for the labor group. In a statement, the AFL-CIO called the principles “flimsy.” 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: John Boehner blasts Barack Obama on trade) 
 
 The leadership’s principles do treat young undocumented immigrants differently, however. House Republican leaders declared that lawmakers should give a pathway to legal residence and citizenship for young immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children. 
 
 “For those who meet certain eligiblity standards, and serve honorably in our military or attain a college degree, we will do just that,” the document says. 
 
 The blueprint is also silent on whether the broader undocumented population will ever be able to apply for permanent residency — and eventually, citizenship — by using pathways that currently exist for all immigrants. The principles rule out a so-called “special” pathway to citizenship — meaning a separate track for undocumented immigrants that isn’t available to other immigrants. 
 
 The document — drafted by leadership with input from key GOP lawmakers who have been working on immigration — also makes clear that the House will not negotiate with the Senate on its comprehensive bill. In fact, GOP leadership has already begun laying out the differences between the House’s approach and the Senate’s bill. 
 
 “The problems in our immigration system must be solved through a step-by-step, common-sense approach that starts with securing our country’s borders, enforcing our laws, and implementing robust enforcement measures,” the document’s preamble reads. 
 
 The pathway outlined in the principles does not open up until the nation’s borders are secure. Securing America’s borders has long been a major issue for House Republicans — but how that can actually be accomplished was a major issue in passing the Senate measure. 
 
 The document lays out policies beyond legalization. Republicans want to implement a biometric system to track those in the nation on a visa. The GOP wants to implement a “workable electronic employment verification system.” And the principles also call for an overhaul to the legal immigration system that’s focused on economic needs, rather than family ties. 
 
 The one-page list of principles has been one of the most hotly anticipated documents in recent memory. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), one of several key senators who led the immigration reform process in that chamber, said with the House GOP leadership’s overhaul blueprint, “the door is open. 
 
 “While these standards are certainly not everything we would agree with, they leave a real possibility that Democrats and Republicans, in both the House and Senate, can in some way come together and pass immigration reform that both sides can accept,” Schumer said. 
 
 Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), another member of the so-called Senate Gang of Eight, praised House Republicans on moving forward on immigration reform by releasing their principles. 
 
 “And if [Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio)] hadn’t gotten control of his conference, this wouldn’t have happened,” McCain said. “So maybe there is a silver lining in the shutdown … I’ve been digging for that pony for a long time.” 
 
 Still, skeptics of a broad immigration reform push were already critical of the House Republican leadership’s principles. 
 
 “In three fundamental respects, the House leaders’ emerging immigration proposal appears to resemble the Senate plan,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who has been talking with House Republicans on the immigration issue. “It provides the initial grant of amnesty before enforcement; it would surge the already unprecedented level of legal lesser-skilled immigration to the U.S. that is reducing wages and increasing unemployment; and it would offer eventual citizenship to a large number of illegal immigrants and visa overstays.” 
 
 Manu Raju contributed to this report. Seung Min Kim reported from Washington. 
 
 Follow @politico ||||| House Speaker John Boehner says he will not allow any House-passed immigration legislation to be blended with the Senate’s sweeping reform bill, further quashing the chances of comprehensive immigration reform legislation being signed into law anytime soon. 
 
 “We have no intention of ever going to conference on the Senate bill,” Boehner told reporters Wednesday. 
 
 Immigration reform advocates had hoped that a “conference”- or legislative negotiation – between House and Senate lawmakers could incorporate ideas from both chambers into compromise legislation that might be palatable to those who say a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants – or at least legalization – is essential to fixing the country’s broken immigration system. 
 
 Republican House Speaker John Boehner talks about the status of immigration reform legislation in the House. 
 
 But some conservatives had been pushing against House passage of any immigration legislation, arguing that Senate Democrats would use the conference to inject more liberal policies and then force Republicans in the House to stomach changes they say are unfair to those who came to the country legally. 
 
 The GOP speaker has pledged for months not to bring the Senate “Gang of Eight” bill, passed with bipartisan support in the upper chamber this summer, up for a vote. That legislation would allow for a lengthy path to citizenship for most undocumented immigrants – something that many Republicans decry as “amnesty" that could hurt job-seeking Americans. 
 
 Republican lawmakers have instead been working on smaller pieces of legislation that would address border security, employment verification, and possibly a path to legalization for undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children. Boehner refused to say Wednesday whether he plans to bring any of those measures to a vote before the end of the year. 
 
 Boehner pointed to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., as the chamber’s point person on the legislative efforts, saying Goodlatte “is working with our members and across the aisle on developing a set of principles for us to deal with this issue.” 
 
 He also dismissed the notion that Republicans are delaying reform legislation to focus on problems with the new health care law. 
 
 Charles Dharapak / AP House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, accompanied by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., which has responsibility over matters relating to healthcare, speaks about President Obama's health care law after Republican lawmakers met at the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013. 
 
 "We need to go about this in a way that the American people and our members can absorb,” he said. 
 
 The apparent dead end for comprehensive reform has not deterred immigration proponents, who have kept pressure on House leaders despite the dim outlook for legislation this year. 
 
 Hours before addressing reporters, Boehner was confronted by immigrant children while he was eating breakfast at a Capitol Hill diner. In a video released by the organization Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM), Boehner told the protesters he is “trying to find some way to get this thing done.” 
 
 The White House has kept public pressure up as well. 
 
 President Barack Obama is meeting with faith leaders Wednesday to discuss the need for reform, and Vice President Joe Biden will give an address on the issue Thursday in Atlanta, Ga. 
 
 Frank Thorp contributed to this story. 
 
 This story was originally published on
– Republicans in Congress might still be smarting over the fallout from the shutdown, but the New York Times reports that another potential "schism" for the party is right around the corner—immigration reform. Conservatives vow to block any legislation from passing the House, while John Boehner and others support the idea of getting at least piecemeal measures through. Things might come to a head next week when a wide range of groups—from the US Chamber of Commerce to FWD.us, the group set up by Mark Zuckerberg and tech leaders—descends on Capitol Hill to pressure GOP lawmakers to get something done. That doesn't look likely anytime soon, however. Fewer than 20 legislative days are left this year, Politico notes, and next year is dicey because it's an election year. Further complicating things is that some Democrats are not agitating for a vote because they see political benefit in the issue, reports Bloomberg. As the leader of ImmigrationWorks USA puts it, “There are some Democrats who would rather get it done, and others who would rather have the issue” linger. "Either way they win." (The Senate passed its reform bill in June, with a 13-year pathway to citizenship for current immigrants a central part of it.)