House majority leader Eric Cantor has become the target of immigration advocates who are angry that legislation has stalled in Congress, according to the Associated Press.
More so than House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, Cantor is seen as responsible for the House's election-year failure to act on immigration 11 months after the Senate passed a wide-ranging bill with billions for border security and a path to citizenship for the 11.5 million immigrants in the country illegally, the AP reported.
"Eric Cantor is the No. 1 guy standing between the American people and immigration reform," Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, a pro-immigrant group, said on a conference call Wednesday organized by Democratic activists and immigrant advocates to criticize Cantor, according to the AP.
Cantor was seen as the member of House Republican leadership most opposed to acting on immigration legislation, the AP reported. Boehner is viewed as an ally by immigration advocates, based partly on his ties to the business community, which supports overhauling immigration laws.
The Virginia Republican, widely seen as having ambitions of being speaker one day, faces a tea party primary challenge June 10 and has hardened his stance on immigration, the AP reported.
Cantor and the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, fellow Virginian Bob Goodlatte, announced last summer that they were developing legislation offering citizenship to immigrants brought illegally to this country as kids, but the bill never appeared, according to the AP.
According to Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif., Cantor committed last year to helping him bring legislation to a vote granting citizenship to immigrants brought here illegally as kids who serve in the military, the AP reported. No agreement was reached, and Cantor's office announced Friday that Denham's measure would not even be allowed to come to the floor this year as part of the annual defense bill, which the House is considering this week.
