WH won’t push immigration issue this year

“Multiple Obama administration officials tell CNN that the White House is not pushing to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill this year. While it’s a top priority for the President’s first term, White House spokesperson Nick Shapiro says “the president has consistently said that he wants to start the discussion later this year because our immigration system is broken…but the economy comes first.”

The White House has made no secret of the fact that the President wants to see health care and energy reform passed this year, and would be loathe to cripple those efforts with a fight over an issue as controversial as immigration reform. And White House strategists have to be keenly aware of the possible impact on House Democrats from red districts.

But the mood on Capitol Hill could be different.

Jim Manley, Sen. Harry Reid’s senior communications advisor, tells CNN that the Majority Leader “intends to try to take comprehensive immigration reform to the floor later this year, probably in the fall.” The situation in the House is trickier – a vote on the hot-button issue could hurt freshman Democrats who were elected in swing districts.

But House Democrats were presented with compelling evidence that voters want to see them trying to fix the immigration system. During the House Democrats’ February retreat, Pete Brodnitz — who works for the same firm that does polling for the president — argued that Democratic House members should promote their own immigration reform plans….”

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/04/09/wh-wont-push-immigration-issue-this-year/Jessica Yellin, CNN, 9 April 2009