Immigration Reform 2014: House Republican Leader Eric Cantor Attacked By Tea Party Opponent For Stance On ‘Amnesty’

The Associated Press reported on Wednesday that as advocates of immigration reform start to ratchet up the pressure on House Republicans for one last time before the August recess, Eric Cantor -- Republican representative from Virginia and majority leader in the House – is pivoting to the right in the face of a June 10 primary challenge from Tea Party candidate Dave Brat. The AP writes that Brat held a press conference on the state Capitol steps on Wednesday at which he deemed Cantor an advocate of “amnesty” for undocumented immigrants.

Cantor, the second-ranking Republican in the House, has said he supports extending a pathway to citizenship to many Dreamers, or young undocumented immigrants brought to the country by their parents as children. But he has boosted no specific legislative remedies (despite talk last summer of a bill to be co-authored with Rep. Bob Goodlatte) while helping shoot down other more comprehensive, bipartisan efforts on immigration. Many immigrant advocates see him as the “number 1 obstacle” to reform, as the chamber’s top Republican, House Speaker John Boehner, has launched ill-fated pushes to rally his party’s members to pass legislation. As Brat rallied supporters on Wednesday, House Democrat and key proponent of immigration reform Luis Gutiérrez held another press conference to accuse Cantor of holding up the passage of reform.

Brat’s press conference in Virginia comes weeks after Cantor helped kill a measure which would’ve given Dreamers who serve in the military a path to citizenship and days after Cantor’s re-election campaign sent out fliers that sought to boost the majority leader’s Tea Party credentials on the issue of immigration. The AP reported on Tuesday that the fliers referenced President Obama and the Democratic majority leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, saying they were “pushing amnesty to give illegal aliens a free ride”, adding that “conservative Republican Eric Cantor is stopping this liberal plan”.