According to the New York Times, it is the Tea party portion of Capitol Hill that controls the Republican Party’s immigration agenda.
John Boehner, the speaker of the House of Representatives, has tried to marginalize those Republicans against granting undocumented immigrants any kind of legal status, with the party establishment spending millions on trying to foil Tea Party candidates in the primary elections; however, the fervent opponents of immigration reform have succeeded in being influential in molding the legislation passed by the House of Representatives just before they went on their summer break. The conservative group comprises Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Mo Brooks of Alabama and Raul Labrador of Ohio, says the Times.
Former immigration lawyer Raul Labrador is an expert in the field, while Bachmann says that the group’s success in achieving conference unity on one of the most controversial issues facing modern America was “one of the most remarkable experiences I’ve had in my eight years in Congress.”
“Those of us who believed in border security were, by and large, cast aside,” Brooks believes. “Funny how things can change real quickly when the only way you can pass legislation is to amend it our way.”
The Tea Party wanted to raise the bar on the granting of hearings to unaccompanied immigrant minors and to slowly dispense with a presidential order giving legal status to immigrants who came to the US illegally as children. Moderate Republicans and Democrats have described the Tea Party’s influence as “regrettable”.