but the white house suggests president obama may act on his own. tracie potts reports from washington. democrats and republicans blame eric cantor s surprise loss. he was willing to let children of illegal immigrants stay in the u.s., but his opponent used that against him scaring off any other republican willing to compromise on immigration. their fear is greater than the reality, but they re quaking in their boots. even marco rubio, the son of immigrants who helped craft the compromise bill doubts there s any middle ground now. we re not going to award 12 million people citizenship and round up and deport 12 million people. this bill are 68. the compromise passed the senate but died in the republican-controlled house when leaders wouldn t bring it up for a vote. give us a sign, give us a vote. each day they don t act. each day they are killing it. the white house says despite the threat of a lawsuit over
last week secretary johnson said he is preparing executive type actions that will help the immigrant community if the republicans don t act by the end of july. i say let s stop waiting. there s no reason to believe that the republican party is going to do anything but exploit the issue politically. 20%, the most extreme part of their party is just has a strangle hold. and that s unfortunate. i believe there are many, many good men and women in the republican party that want to do comprehensive immigration reform and want to resolve our immigration system for a variety of reasons but unfortunately the leadership is never going to let them. it s ashame. alex, finally in my 22 years in the congress, more than 218 votes exist for comprehensive immigration reform to reform our immigration system and they won t give us a vote. let me follow up with you a little bit on the white house, given the humanitarian crisis happening at the boardser.
do is say, look, we have to fix these laws. the only way for that is for congress to do that. it s time for congress to take its step in passing a bill, give us a vote. if we do that, we ll be good. short of that, the president said let s make sure that we re not causing more pain to families than necessary so he s instructed secretary johnson of homeland security to sit down with us, to see what we can try to do to make sure, again, conforming with the law, that we make adjustments where possible. let me ask one last question before you go. when the president was called the deporter in chief, what was your reaction to that? i remember barack obama before he ever became president in 2007 and 2008 taking very, very difficult positions on immigration, driver s licenses for folks who didn t have documents, because the safety concern. which were politically unsuitable for most candidates. he s been out there since the very beginning. i don t question president obama, where he stands. i
on the national minimum wage to $10.10. a lot of republicans believe in a higher minimum wage. it is hard to disagree with an effort to give america a raise. democrats hope to push the raise especially women voters and motivates them to vote. here is nancy pelosi. over 60% of the people getting minimum wage are women. and what the impact of this is on women and when women succeed america succeeds. mr. speaker, give us a vote. well, democrats can t do it alone. they need a majority in the house and 218 to get this passed. congressman bishop filed a discharge petition to force the house vote on the $10.10 minimum wage. he pointed out there were no republicans lining up to sign on. when i left the chamber there
welcome back to hardball. today democrats made good on their promise they made nearly two weeks ago at the winter retreat to try to force a vote on the national minimum wage to $10.10. a lot of republicans believe in a higher minimum wage. it is hard to disagree with an effort to give america a raise. democrats hope to push the raise especially women voters and motivates them to vote. here is nancy pelosi. over 60% of the people getting minimum wage are women. and what the impact of this is on women and when women succeed america succeeds. mr. speaker, give us a vote. well, democrats can t do it alone. they need a majority in the house and 218 to get this passed. congressman bishop filed a