From a Republican congressman: House Republicans are even more determined not to compromise, since the Bilbray victory is being interpreted in light of immigration. “The position of the conference is even more hardline.” His guess is that “there’s not going to be a bill.” Certainly “nothing involving amnesty and legalization.” The pressures on the House Republicans pushing the other way will be from the business community that wants cheap labor and from people calling the Republicans bigots. In light of that, the House GOP might be willing to go along with some vague language about perhaps being open to some kind of amnesty if enforcement benchmarks are met. But this congressman thinks that would be a mistake because it would send a mixed signal, and it’s going to be hard enough to seal the border without sending such a signal. He’s not impressed with Bush’s pro-enforcement push. Bush is clearly just thinking “how much do we have to give these crazy Neanderthals to make them happy.” He says most House Republicans would rather have no bill rather than a bad bill. A lot of enforcement could happen without a massive overhaul of the immigration system, provided Bush were interested in doing it. This congressman doesn’t think he is, and actually is skeptical that Bush would even enforce new laws should they pass this year.