Freedom Folks: Updates On "Immigration Reform"

Kate O'Beirne reports from the Hill...

Although President Bush has said that he has seen a greater openness to comprehensive immigration reform in Congress since the elections, Hill sources are telling me that its prospects are pretty dim. Apparently, Speaker Pelosi has told the White House she will not bring such a bill to the floor unless there has been a strong bipartisan vote in its favor in the Senate and unless a significant number of House Repubicans (100?) will support it. She's obviously looking for political cover for her members. And, apparently during last year's campaign Rahm Emmanuel advised his freshmen members to avoid a position on immigration if they could, and to echo Repubicans' call for "enforcement first" if they couldn't. He is said to be advising the leadership that it would be best to leave the immigration issue to fester during the 2008 campaign cycle because it so divides Republicans.