That Boehner would respond to Obama’s attack on Americans who oppose amnesty and want to enforce our immigration laws by pretending that the president was talking about taxes should tell something about where his priorities are.
John Boehner is now probably the most powerful Republican in the country. With a 43-seat majority in the House, and dozens of moderate Democrats willing to support some patriotic immigration reform, any bill that the Republicans are solidly behind could easily pass the House.
But Boehner has a very mixed record on immigration. He has a career B- grade from NumbersUSA for his 20 years in Congress. Some of the positive aspects in his record: co-sponsoring the CLEAR Act that would empower local law enforcement to take on illegal immigration; voting against the Chrysler-Berman Amendment to HR 202, which would have massively increased legal immigration in 1996.
Unfortunately, there are serious negative aspects to Boehner’s record too: he consistently votes in favor of increasing both high- and low-skilled guest workers, voted twice for the 245(i) Amnesty and for amnesty for Central Americans; and, most significantly, was one of just 17 Republicans to vote against HR 4437, the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005.
