With Immigration Reform Dead In 2013, Fasters Pack Up And Activists’ Pressure On House GOP Leaders Turns Bitter

With Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) planning on wrapping up the House's legislative activities on Friday and no vote scheduled on immigration between now and then, organizers of the "Fast for Families" are expected to announce on Thursday - one month after their fast for immigration reform began - that they'll pack up their tents and vacate the National Mall in Washington, D.C. But some of their activist peers, fed up with House inaction on the issue, have mounted a series of increasingly bitter protests directed at GOP leaders in the last days of the 2013 Congressional calendar.

Politico reported on Monday that protests from activists have included an appearance at the Arlington, Virginia condo of House Majority leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), a flood of letters from immigrant children delivered to House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), a confrontation with Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) as he ate breakfast at a Capitol Hill diner, and on Monday, a skit performed by children at the Rayburn House Office Building in which Boehner was depicted as a "Grinch" who kept families from uniting for the holidays. Others have also taken their protests to the door of his home in suburban Cincinnati, where a group assembled to pray for reform.

Those tactics have ruffled feathers among some Republicans who support immigration reform like Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who told Politico, "They've killed reform. It's over. It's dead. They killed it. I begged them not to do crazy things, and they decided to be crazy. Now it's dead. That's what they get. It's stupid. Why target the people who actually want to do reform?" Boehner, who has refused to introduce a comprehensive overhaul passed by the Senate in June and said that the House GOP will vote on small, single-issue bills on immigration instead, recently hired former director of immigration policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, Rebecca Tallent. The hire has fanned the flame on hopes that Boehner may finally begin scheduling votes on immigration bills in 2014.

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