House Minority Leader John Boehner is dismissing a Democratic push for immigration reform as a ploy to drum up midterm election votes, saying that 'no one believes' it will pass in Congress. Boehner backs Ariz. law, rips Dems

House Minority Leader John Boehner is dismissing a Democratic push for immigration reform as a “cynical ploy” to drum up midterm election votes, saying that “no one believes” it will pass in Congress.

Boehner made the comments in a closed meeting with the House Republican Conference, GOP sources said.


Senate Democrats have accelerated a push for comprehensive immigration reform in the wake of a tough anti-immigrant law signed last week by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R). The Arizona law requires police to stop people if they have “reasonable suspicion” that the person might be an undocumented immigrant. If the person can’t produce valid identification, they can be fined and jailed for up to six months.

Boehner told reporters that Arizona was within its constitutional rights in passing the law. “It has a 70 percent approval in Arizona and I think that we ought to respect the people of Arizona in their right to make their own decisions,” Boehner said.

The Arizona law has drawn fire from a number of civil rights groups and religious organizations, some of which have compared Arizona’s law to Jim Crow, Nazi Germany or apartheid South Africa.

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the only Jewish Republican and his party’s no. 2 in the House, ripped a fellow Jewish lawmaker for comparing the Arizona law to Nazi Germany before World War II.

“I think that that kind of analogy is something that is inappropriate in this discussion,” Cantor said. Referencing Nazi Germany has “no place in this debate,” Cantor said.

Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) told POLITICO Monday that the new Arizona law is “absolutely reminiscent” of Nazi Germany before World War II. “I fear that Arizona is headed for a police state and it really underscores the need for immigration reform at the federal level to fix our system,” he said.