Speaking last Thursday, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) made a concerted effort to temper immigration reform expectations for this year.

“I never underestimated the difficulty in moving forward this year,” Boehner said, “There’s widespread doubt about whether this administration can be trusted to enforce our laws. And it’s going to be difficult to move any immigration legislation until that changes.”

I believe Boehner is saying this because he fears immigration reform could harm the GOP midterm elections in very conservative districts. For the future of the Republican Party, members need to address immigration reform as soon as possible. Otherwise, they risk losing significant ground in national elections as the Hispanic population continues to increase.

Prior to these remarks, it appeared Boehner was prepared to aggressively push for immigration reform in 2014. For months he had been saying the House would take action on immigration.

It is disappointing to see that, yet again, Boehner appears to be governing at the mercy of Tea Party Republicans, rather than leading his party to where it needs to be to win national elections.

But it’s not only Tea Party Republicans that Boehner fears alienating with immigration reform. Centrist Republicans from conservative districts who are likely to face challenges from Tea Party candidates are understandably wary of the possible political repercussions of supporting immigration reform — especially if reform includes a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, or “amnesty” as many conservatives refer to it.

While it is true President Barack Obama has made unilateral changes to the Affordable Care Act unauthorized by Congress, this cannot be an excuse for Republicans to refuse to move forward on immigration reform. Throughout time, the general public will become quite weary of hearing it if blaming the Affordable Care Act for all of the nation’s problems is the GOP’s only message.

Yet the reality is, under Obama, more illegal immigrants have been deported than during any previous administration. He simply cannot be blamed for the fact that Republicans can’t seem to agree on how to move forward.

Groups like the Tea Party Patriots will never be supportive of Boehner, no matter how hard he tries to accommodate their interests. Even after Boehner made his comments, Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator of Tea Party Patriots, was still critical of him.

“We fully expect him to change his mind again,” Martin said in a statement. “This is not leadership in any sense of the word and clearly demonstrates that Speaker Boehner’s ability to speak for the House of Representatives, the Republican Party or even the American people is over.”

Groups like these will never support Republicans like Boehner, and it’s time he forgets about letting them influence him and begins concentrating on what is really important: pushing forward an immigration bill that is bipartisan enough to pass in not only the U.S. House of Representatives, but also the Senate.

The GOP publicly released its immigration reform principles on Jan. 30, 2013, and that was an important first step. Republicans can no longer be accused of not being explicit in their terms thanks to this.

Republican politicians must begin to treat immigrants and minorities as human beings who can add value to our economy, society and culture. The language of “illegal alien” is decisive and should no longer be used by Republicans. It will be measures like these that are just as important as any policy decisions in the long run.

If Boehner really cares about his own legacy as Speaker of the House and the future of his party, it’s time he started to show more political courage on this issue.

Otherwise, Republicans can expect the 71 percent of Latino voters who supported Obama instead of Mitt Romney in 2012 to vote for a Democrat again in 2016.

Ethan Demers is a senior political science and history major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at [email protected].

Published on February 12, 2014 at 3:10 am