House Speaker: Time To Solve Comprehensive Immigration Reform

House Speaker John Boehner today came out in favor of comprehensive immigration reform in an interview with ABC News:

This issue has been around far too long. A comprehensive approach is long overdue, and I’m confident that the president, myself, others can find the common ground to take care of this issue once and for all.

Many commentators have argued that it is vital for the Republican Party to embrace comprehensive immigration reform in order to take the issue off the table as a wedge issue for Democrats with the Latino population. It’s clear that the reason the Obama administration didn’t tackle immigration reform during the Democrat-run Congress of 2009-2010 is that they wanted the issue to survive. With a Republican House, watch for Republicans to initiate legislation on this issue, opening the Latino vote to the Republican Party, particularly as the Latino population is heavily Catholic.