Written By : John Hawkins

This is an incredibly telling admission that should embolden people who’re serious about fighting against illegal immigration,

Rep. Luis Gutierrez let the cat out of the bag Thursday by acknowledging that the Democrats’ 77-seat majority in the House wouldn’t be enough to pass comprehensive immigration reform this year. The next Congress will look even worse:

A leading proponent of comprehensive immigration reform admitted Thursday that “there are an insufficient number of Democratic votes” to pass a bill this year.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez’s (D-Ill.) comments are significant because he has aggressively pushed President Barack Obama to pass immigration reform during this Congress.

The Illinois Democrat appeared at a press conference Thursday to tout that 102 lawmakers — all Democrats — have signed on to his reform measure.

“There are an insufficient number of Democratic votes to pass this in the Senate or in the House. I’ve said it. There are an insufficient number. We are 102 strong, we are 102 commitment, but we are insufficient,” Gutierrez said.

Incidentally, Gutierrez’s comments line up perfectly with what Roy Beck from NumbersUSA told me in April of last year,

Roy Beck: Just look at the Senate. It looks like there’s going to be a good chance that the Senate is going to have 59 Democrats. …There were about 15 Democrats who voted against the amnesty in 2007. I think we ought to get about half of those and maybe more. If you got 8 Democrats to vote against it, that means you’d need 9 Republicans. I don’t see it. At most, I see 6 and they might not get but 2 or 3 — especially if they offend McCain.

John Hawkins: What about the House? How does that look?

Roy Beck: I don’t think Pelosi thinks she has the votes. …She goes out and makes statements that get all of us all upset and gets her applause from the Hispanic caucus. But …there were right around 50 Democrats who co-sponsored the SAVE ACT last year, which was a very, very strong enforcement bill. This amnesty will not have nearly the strength of that. I think one of the reasons that those Democrats signed that bill is that they’re from districts whose constituents are pushing them hard on this. So, I think we’d have a good chance to get 60-70 Democrats in the House to vote against that and I don’t think we ought to lose more than a half dozen Republicans. If we did that well, then we’d beat it in the House.

If they can’t get the votes for comprehensive immigration reform AKA amnesty this year, it seems unlikely that they’re going to get it done in the next few years. Combine that with an informed and skeptical public, a GOP that has been chastised into taking a security first position on the issue, and credible allegations that Obama is deliberately refusing to secure the border to use it as leverage to get amnesty, and we may finally have a genuine opportunity to go on offense after November’s elections.

If we can take the House, we can pass a tough enforcement bill that completes the fence on the border, cracks down on crooked businesses that knowingly hire illegals, and that improves interior enforcement. Then, instead of conservatives desperately fighting to stave off amnesty, Obama and the Democrats will either have to cave on an enforcement bill or take a tremendous beating with the public. It has been a long, hard road to get to this point, but next year we may finally be in a position where we can “win” on this issue in Congress.

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