May 18, 2014 11:04 AM UTC

You're Welcome: Cantor Kills Coffman's Immigration Amendment

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• by: Colorado Pols

​AP reports, on the same day that U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor headlined a fundraiser at Denver's Brown Palace Hotel with Rep. Mike Coffman of Aurora, Cantor killed an immigration reform amendment Coffman has heavily promoted as evidence of his newfound sympathy for the plight of undocumented immigrants:

House Republican leaders intervened Friday to prevent a vote on immigration legislation, dealing a severe blow to election-year efforts to overhaul the dysfunctional system.

The move came after a Republican congressman from California announced plans to try to force a vote next week, over strong conservative opposition, on his measure creating a path to citizenship for immigrants who were brought illegally to the U.S. as children and serve in the military.

Rep. Jeff Denham labeled his bill the ENLIST Act and said he would seek a vote as an amendment to the popular annual defense bill, the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA.

In response, Doug Heye, spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, said: "No proposed ENLIST amendments to NDAA will be made in order."

You may recall in early April that Coffman "denounced" fellow Republican Rep. Steve King (R-IA) for opposing Rep. Jeff Denham's amendment. Despite the lip service Coffman has paid to immigration reform as he tries to stay in office in his newly competitive district, this very limited provision for undocumented students who enlist in the military is as far as Coffman has gone on the record with a specific policy proposal. Pro-immigrant GOP Rep. Denham is a co-sponsor of the comprehensive immigration reform bill, H.R. 15, that Coffman has said repeatedly he opposes. When Coffman had the opportunity to take action to support the undocumented students he now claims should have a path to citizenship, he voted to terminate the program that protects them from deportation.

And Friday, the same day Cantor's staff in Washington announced the "ENLIST Act" Coffman made such a big deal out of supporting was dead, Coffman was at the Brown Palace with Cantor raising money.

It seems to us that Democrats couldn't come up with a better example of New Coffman's® hypocrisy if they tried.