Last call for Obama on immigration reform: Column

Tick tock. On Wednesday, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., reminded lawmakers that the clock is ticking on immigration reform. "After almost a year with no serious movement forward on immigration reform in the House," he said, "I am beginning to wonder whether the Republicans will get serious about immigration before they run out of time." Gutierrez warned Republicans that President Obama could soon take unilateral action. "Do you think he will sit by and do nothing just because you are doing nothing?"

Gutierrez is right. Not only is the window rapidly closing on any possibility of reform over the next few years, it is also shutting on the GOP's long-term viability as a national party. And after repeatedly refusing to act on immigration, House Republicans cannot complain if President Obama decides to move ahead without them.

The stubbornness of House Republicans on immigration is shameful considering the efforts of so many others to make reform a reality. Immigrant advocates assembled a coalition of labor, business, and religious leaders to push for an overhaul of our broken system. The Senate passed the bill put forward by the bipartisan "Gang of 8." House Democrats came up with their own immigration bill, and attempted the long-shot maneuver of a discharge petition to force a vote on it.

House Republicans? They've done nothing, unless you count the bill that they passed last year to deport DREAMers, young immigrants brought here illegally as children. It was the only immigration bill that the GOP-controlled House voted on in 2013.

Now House Republicans are down to their last chance on reform. If they do not act in the next few months, they certainly will not do anything on immigration during the midterms, nor will they do it once the presidential primary season gets underway. Then the GOP will be heading into the 2016 presidential election with an even greater "Latino problem" than they had in 2012, when 71% of Hispanic voters chose President Obama over Mitt Romney.

Latinos are not the only voters who want reform; polling consistently shows that a majority of Americans favor reform that includes a path to citizenship for the undocumented.

Gutierrez was not exaggerating when he told House Republicans, "If you give him no choice, this president is going to take charge himself." Obama has already signaled that he is weighing his options on immigration. He has directed Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to conduct a review of deportations. He has met privately with undocumented immigrants as well as with Hispanic lawmakers (who are reportedly drawing up a "wish list" regarding deportation reforms). Consider that the president has several immigration policies he could change with a stroke of his pen, from ending the controversial Secure Communities program to expanding his Deferred Action program to include more classes of people. Such moves would be well within his legal authority. If House Republicans then howl with outrage, hey, they had their chance.

Sure, this Congress is known as a do-nothing Congress. But immigration reform is different from other contentious issues, like gun control or the minimum wage fight, because Republicans themselves say that it should be a priority. On Tuesday, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told a conservative group that, "The bottom line is the Hispanic community is not going to hear us until we get beyond this (immigration) issue." The GOP's "immigration principles," introduced earlier this year, include a path to legal status for the undocumented, while the GOP "autopsy report" in 2013 recommended that the party embrace comprehensive reform. So those House Republicans still opposed to "amnesty" are going against their own party's interests – and they are underestimating the president.

It's last call for legislative action on immigration. If House Republicans do not take steps on reform, then the president can rightfully proceed on his own.

Raul Reyes is an attorney in New York and a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors.

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