The Republican’s self-inflicted death spiral continues. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) will be introducing legislation this week aimed at granting six years of legal status to illegal aliens. "It’s halfway – and it always has been – halfway between full amnesty and simply rejecting people,“ Issa told Politico on Wednesday. "I think if we’re going to break this logjam that’s occurred for my whole 13 years I’ve been in Congress, we have to find middle ground.”

This is not Issa’s first attempt to find the so-called middle ground. In December of 2003, Issa introduced the Alien Accountability Act, "To account for all aliens unlawfully present in the United States by providing incentives for such aliens to register with the Secretary of Homeland Security, to provide immunity from criminal prosecution for the employer of such an alien if the employer pays all taxes and penalties owed by reason of such employment, and for other purposes.“

Issa’s current legislation reportedly draws its inspiration from that bill. He believes that granting six years of legal status will allow the government to assort illegals into different categories, such as those with family ties to U.S. citizens, those that want to participate in a guest worker program, and those who have a criminal background. The latter group would be deported, according to Issa. "If somebody has a nexus that would reasonably allow them to become permanent residents and American citizen, we should allow them to do that,” Issa contended. “Our view is that long before six years, people would be in those categories heading toward some other pathway, in a guest worker program, or of course, have left the country.”

Issa claimed he had talked to a number of other legislators regarding this effort, but he refused to name names, and a Judiciary Committee spokesman declined to say whether panel chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) had scheduled the bill for mark up.

Issa is not alone with regard to House Republican efforts to shoot themselves in the head. Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) has been working in tandem with Goodlatte on a “dreamers” bill, addressing the legal status of immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children. Reps. Raul Labrador (R-ID) and Ted Poe (R-TX) are crafting a bill aimed at creating a visa program that would allow more low-skill workers into the country. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is working on a proposal aimed at the broader illegal alien population.

Ryan at least brings up border enforcement – before his “solution” dissolves in weasel-worded fashion. While he wants “independent experts,” as opposed to Obama administration officials, to determine whether we have achieved “operational control,” (defined as stopping 90 percent of illegal crossings), there is nothing that says legalization is contingent upon that control. Thus, one is hard-pressed to see how Ryan’s efforts are any more effective than the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act that promised the very same border control, in exchange for granting amnesty to 2.7 million illegals. Amnesty was granted and border control was promptly ignored–which is why we now have more than four times the number of illegals in America, many of whom are no longer requesting amnesty, but demanding it.

Those illegals are joined by other constituencies. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, top business leaders, and Silicon Valley groups are putting together several events in conjunction with a media campaign, aimed at pressuring House Republicans to enact comprehensive immigration reform before the end of the year. "Despite the public perception of immigration reform being dead or on the back burner, we believe there’s an opportunity to make progress this calendar year,“ said Peter Muller, director of government relations at Intel.

Zuckerberg’s political advocacy group, FWD.us will sponsor a trip to Washington, D.C. this week, with as many as 200 representatives intending to meet with Republican lawmakers to push the reform agenda forward. They will be joined on Capitol Hill by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), one of the country’s largest tech trade groups, who will be conducting their own lobbying efforts. "We’re going to keep the pressure on,” said Veronica O'Connell, CEA’s vice president of congressional affairs. “We are committed as an association and as an industry to keep up the momentum as much as we can and work until it’s done.”

Last Thursday, President Obama, undoubtedly eager to change the conversation to something other than the disastrous rollout of the healthcare bill, added his voice to the mix as well. In a rally covered by several Spanish-language TV stations, he also pressured the GOP. "It’s up to Republicans in the House to decide whether reform becomes a reality or not,“ he said. "What I’ve said to them and what I repeat today, if House Republicans have new and different ideas of how we move forward, I will be listening. I’m eager to hear those additional ideas.”

The president also emphasized the compressed time frame that has become the latest mantra for reform advocates. “Let’s see if we can get this done; let’s see if we can get it done this year,” he added.

Yet once again, the president demonstrated a remarkable level of political tone-deafness, repeatedly bashing the same Republicans whose support he would need to get anything done. He complained that immigration “tends to be viewed through a political prism,” even as he claimed several Republicans are against reform because "if Obama is for it, then I’m against it.“

As the Wall Street Journal‘s Daniel Henninger explains, Republican antipathy with regard to this president is well-justified. "Bluntly, Mr. Obama’s partners are concluding that they cannot do business with him,” he writes. “They don’t trust him. Whether it’s the Saudis, the Syrian rebels, the French, the Iraqis, the unpivoted Asians or the congressional Republicans, they’ve all had their fill of coming up on the short end with so mercurial a U.S. president.”

Henninger voices the concerns of Republicans such as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID) who “are afraid that if they cut an immigration deal with the White House – say, offering a path to citizenship in return for strong enforcement of any new law – Mr. Obama will desert them by reneging on the enforcement.” Regardless, Rubio announced late last week that he still favors reform, but prefers piecemeal acton. May be he thinks that will re-ingratiate him with conservatives. Don’t bet on it, Marco.

As for Obama, who’s kidding whom? What possible price would he pay for reneging on any promises he makes to Republicans? America is wrangling over comprehensive immigration reform precisely because promises of border enforcement and a crackdown on businesses that hire illegals have been consistently reneged upon for the last 27 years. Even the Secure Fence Act of 2006 has devolved into a farce, with only 32 miles of double-layer fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border constructed, despite the bill mandating 700 miles worth. And if the American left has paid any price whatsoever for their duplicity, one is hard-pressed to say what it is.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) epitomizes that reality. Late last week, he insisted that if Republicans don’t pass comprehensive immigration reform, Obama “has the responsibility” to stop all deportations of illegals. Does anyone seriously think the same president who unilaterally imposed his version of the DREAM Act by executive fiat isn’t up to the task of ignoring immigration law to an even greater extent – or altogether?

Regardless, it appears that clueless House Republicans will push forward. “We’re still committed to moving forward on step-by-step, common-sense reforms,” Michael Steel, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), told The Arizona Republic in an e-mail. “The Judiciary Committee has already passed several bills that could see floor action.”

It is action utterly anathema to the interests of the American public. A sobering report presented by the Heritage Foundation reveals the staggering costs associated with legalization. Another released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) demonstrates the negative effect on American workers’ employment levels and wages. Throw in the pernicious effort to obscure the reality that legalizing 11 million illegals adds an additional 17 million immigrants to the total over the next decade, via the family reunification process, and it is impossible to see anything at all that accrues to the interests of ordinary Americans.

Activists and their supporters on the left seeking an unassailable Democrat political majority? Yes. Big Business looking to drive down wages due to increased competition for jobs? Absolutely. Those who wish to fundamentally transform the United States of America? Undoubtedly.

Yet the greatest insult of all aimed at ordinary Americans comes courtesy of the CBO. Their analysis of the Senate bill, the only one in anything resembling a finalized form, reveals that comprehensive immigration reform will only stem 25 percent of future illegal immigration. Illegal immigration that the Pew Research Center Hispanic Trends Project believes may be on the rise again. They put the number of illegals in the country at 11.7 million – meaning the oft-stated media total of 11 million illegals is off by 700,000. For perspective sake, only 18 cities in the entire country have a population greater than 700,000.

None have a population of 11 million.

Comprehensive immigration reform advocates claim we need to pass a bill as soon as possible to fix this problem “once and for all.” That’s exactly the same promise that was made in 1986. Yet somehow, Republicans have been gulled into believing that, not only is this promise legitimate, but that their party will be made more attractive to Hispanic voters. Making themselves toxic to their core constituency is more like it.

Maybe even fatally toxic.

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