With an eye to 1984, O'Neill scotches a compromise bill
The real news came almost as an afterthought. House Speaker Tip O'Neill was winding down a routine press conference last week when he offhandedly announced that he would block a sweeping reform of the immigration laws from even reaching a vote. "The His-panics," O'Neill declared, "have said that it's the worst thing that has ever confronted them."
Thus, without even consulting other Democratic leaders in the House, O'Neill derailed a compromise bill that was designed to stem the flow of illegal immigrants, while giving amnesty to most of those already here. Co-sponsored by Republican Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming and Democratic Congressman Romano Mazzoli of Kentucky, the legislation was the product of seven years of work by a national commission, a presidential task force and half a dozen congressional committees. The need for reform was clear enough: more than a million-illegals pour over U.S. borders every year.
But for the intensely partisan Speaker, the immigration bill had a sharp political downside. Hispanic leaders had warned him that its passage would cost the Democrats Hispanic votes in 1984. The Speaker was determined to keep this important bloc happy. Democrats "truly represent the Hispanics of America," he said. "These are the people my party is trying to help."
At the same time, O'Neill tried to blame the Administration for undermining the bill. The White House wanted the Democratic-controlled House to pass it, he asserted, so the President could veto it. That way, Reagan would come across as a hero to Hispanic Americans, and the Democrats as chumps. Was the man in the Oval Office capable of such a cynical trick? "He's the most political man I've seen there," snapped O'Neill.
The notion of a G.O.P. double-§— cross was first planted in O'Neill's ear by California Congressman Edward Roybal, one of the eleven-member Hispanic caucus. Roybal admits that he first heard it as dinner gossip, but as evidence, he produced a letter from Attorney General William French Smith to the House Judiciary Committee expressing Administration reservations concerning the House version of the bill. Rumors supposedly emanating from the White House also hinted of a presidential veto.
The Administration stoutly denied it. "I'm not trying to set Tip up," Reagan protested to Republican congressional leaders. "We want the immigration bill." Vice President Bush personally delivered the same message to the Speaker. The letter from Smith was described as nothing more than a routine working paper, in effect a bargaining stance for haggling over the bill's particulars. Said the Attorney General: "This in no way amounts to a veto threat." As for the rumors from the White House, they came from a lowly and uninformed aide in the office of Faith Whittlesey, assistant to the President for public liaison.