Lou Barletta has fought for six years to stem illegal immigration and enforce existing federal immigration laws, first as the mayor of Hazleton and now as a second-term congressman.
As many of his fellow Republicans soften their stance on immigration in reaction to Mitt Romney's tepid support from Hispanics in November, Mr. Barletta is doubling down, vowing to oppose a Senate proposal that could lead to U.S. citizenship for up to 12 million undocumented immigrants that he sees as a "grossly mistaken" and futile effort to win Hispanic votes.
Dr. Agapito Lopez, a retired ophthalmologist who fought the immigration ordinances Mr. Barletta implemented as mayor, predicted the 57-year-old Republican would band together with other "anti-immigrant" representatives to block a compromise from passing in the House of Representatives.
"He made a group of people that are anti-immigrant," Dr. Lopez said. "They made a caucus. They will fight so this will not pass."
A "no" vote on an immigration reform compromise would fortify Mr. Barletta's bona fides within the anti-illegal immigration movement without costing him support or favor in the House of Representatives, where Republican leaders will still need his vote on the federal budget, fiscal sequestration and entitlement reform, Franklin & Marshall College professor G. Terry Madonna, Ph.D., said.
A "no" vote would also fall in line with what voters in his 11th Congressional District expect, said Dr. Madonna, the director of the college's Center for Politics and Public Affairs.
Those voters have already endorsed Mr. Barletta's illegal immigration position twice - electing him over the 13-term incumbent Democrat Paul Kanjorski in 2010 and, after redistricting, returning him to Washington with a 16-percent margin of victory over Democratic activist Gene Stilp.
"He can stay where he is," Dr. Madonna said. "I don't think a vote either way will be transcendent or will dominate his re-election. If he believes what he believes for what he believes and he casts a vote against the leadership, if that's what it comes down to, I don't get any real sense that he's in some political danger."
Given the chance, Mr. Barletta could emerge as a national voice for the kinds of immigration reform alternatives he outlined in an interview last Thursday, including increased border patrols at the Mexican and Canadian crossings, enabling state and local law enforcement officers to enforce federal immigration laws, mandating employers verify the legal status of prospective employees, and establishing a system to track people who remain in the U.S. on expired visas.
"If we're going to be honest about dealing with this issue, then we need to look at all aspects of it, not just the good side of an individual who came here for a better life and might be going on to college, and that's true," Mr. Barletta said. "But, if we're going to make a decision - a policy that will affect America for decades and decades - then we need to be adults to have an intelligent debate about all of the effects of illegal immigration, good and bad, and weigh that. And, if at the end of the day, the good outweighs the bad, well then we can make good policy."
Rosemary Jenks, the director of government relations for the anti-illegal immigration group NumbersUSA, said Mr. Barletta and like-minded Republicans in the House, including Rep. Steve King of Iowa and Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, "represent the voice of reason on immigration."
"Barletta, Smith, King - they absolutely know the details of the whole immigration system," Ms. Jenks said in a telephone interview Friday. "They can spot the loopholes and fix the loopholes. They know that immigration is a public policy that should be designed to serve the national interest. That is something that is far too often left out of the debate altogether."
So far, Mr. Barletta and Mr. King have been left out of the House debate on immigration policy. Neither has been invited to join a House panel meeting in secret to shape the chamber's version of an immigration reform plan, Mr. King said in a telephone interview Thursday.
Immigration-related measures Mr. Barletta and Mr. King proposed and supported over the last two years have stalled amid battles over the government's growing debt and the threat of massive cuts to spending on defense and social welfare programs. Those measures included: Mr. Barletta's bill to strip federal funding from cities that give "sanctuary" to illegal immigrants and Mr. King's bills to prevent businesses from taking tax deductions on wages paid to illegal immigrants and U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants from gaining citizenship.
Mr. King praised Mr. Barletta's work on immigration, calling him "a voice of clarity on the rule of law and how this applies in communities."
Once President Barack Obama and the Gang of Eight brought immigration back to the forefront, Ms. Jenks' group began mobilizing a telephone campaign similar to the one in 2007 that crippled Capitol Hill switchboards and derailed an immigration bill that touched on several of the same points as last week's proposals. Mr. King did not rule out forming a coalition of like-minded representatives, but said such a movement should happen organically.
"You have to just let it happen if it's going to happen," Mr. King said Thursday while visiting his district, which includes Denison, Iowa - a meatpacking center and magnet for illegal immigrant workers from Mexico. "You get back in town and it just seems to be that there will be a handful of like-minded people that will become two hands full and will grow."
Immigration boiled over as a pressing legislative issue after the election last November, when exit polls showed Hispanic voters chose Mr. Obama over Mr. Romney, by a 71 to 27 percent margin compared with a 67 to 31 percent gap for Mr. Obama over Republican Sen. John McCain in 2008.
"Romney loss reveals gap with Hispanics," The Hill, a newspaper covering Congress and the federal government, blared on Nov. 8. The same day, Bloomberg News declared: "If demographics are destiny, Democrats are positioned to dominate U.S. national politics until Republicans can attract Hispanic voters who shunned their party in the presidential election."
The role of four Republicans in shaping the Senate proposal - McCain, Marco Rubio of Florida, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Jeff Flake of Arizona - appeared to signal the party's move toward compromise to stem the migration of Hispanic voters. Mr. Barletta dismissed the Republican shift as "more politics than looking at what is good for the people."
If the Senate proposal evolves into a bill and eventually leads to a House vote, Mr. Barletta said he would not support it.
"I've made it clear to Speaker (John) Boehner and to Leader (Eric) Cantor. They know exactly where I stand on this issue," Mr. Barletta said. "I didn't go to Washington to make new friends. I went to Washington to fix the problems that we have. I haven't been afraid before and I'm not afraid now. I've been called the names I'm going to be called, again, but I'm going to stand up for what I believe is right because the perspective I'm bringing to this issue is one that many of the elected officials in Washington - members of Congress - never see."
As mayor, Mr. Barletta passed ordinances punishing landlords who rented to illegal immigrants and businesses that employed them. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia ruled the law unconstitutional in 2010, but the U.S. Supreme Court has ordered the panel to reconsider after the high court upheld a law that enabled Arizona authorities to penalize employers.
Despite the ordinances, the Hispanic share of the population in Hazleton grew to 37 percent, according to the 2010 U.S. Census.
"(Critics) claim that I have chased legal Latinos out of Hazleton," Mr. Barletta said. "Our Hispanic population has grown every single year since the ordinance. Why would you move here if you were not welcomed? You can live anywhere in the United States, why would you come to Hazleton?"
The proposals from Mr. Obama and the Gang of Eight approach the immigration issue in reverse chronological order, Mr. Barletta said. By declaring illegal immigrants currently in the country can begin a "pathway to citizenship" without first increasing border security and deporting people who have remained in the U.S. on expired visas, "it gives a green light to people all over the world to flock to the United States," Mr. Barletta said.
"So, whether you're here 10 years, 20 years, yesterday or you come tomorrow, we have already indicated that we're going to give you a pathway to being a citizen," Mr. Barletta said. "This is at a time when 22 million Americans are out of work and this is at a time when a record number of new American citizens are looking for jobs. We're going to allow an underground workforce, or a new workforce to come in and compete for those jobs?"
Mr. Barletta cited a 2007 study by the conservative Heritage Foundation that found a "pathway to citizenship" with measures to collect income taxes and fines from an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants-turned-citizens would still cost the U.S. government $2.6 trillion.
"Those costs would come from Medicare, Social Security, unemployment compensation, food stamps and other welfare programs," Mr. Barletta said. "The reason is, is because the majority - so many - will be in low-paying jobs, so the money that they would be paying in, in taxes, would be a negative compared to what they would be taking out of the system. This is at a time when Washington is broke, when we can't balance a budget."
Mr. Barletta's remarks in the interview Thursday were more tempered than the comments he made to The Morning Call in Allentown on Monday.
"I hope politics is not at the root of why we're rushing to pass a bill. Anyone who believes that they're going to win over the Latino vote is grossly mistaken," Mr. Barletta said, according to The Morning Call. "The majority that are here illegally are low-skilled or may not even have a high school diploma. The Republican Party is not going to compete over who can give more social programs out. They will become Democrats because of the social programs they'll depend on."
Ms. Jenks, the director of government relations for NumbersUSA, is counting on Mr. Barletta, Mr. King and others in their caucus to continue the dialogue on immigration reform.
"The only way to get a real conversation started is to have people who know the facts stand up and provide them," Ms. Jenks said. "That's what these guys (Barletta, King and Smith) are great at doing. They have to start out standing alone, but essentially every time they get up and talk, they give their colleagues permission to get up and talk with them. It's critical."
Kent Jackson, staff writer, contributed to this report.
Contact the writer: msisak@citizensvoice.com, @cvmikesisak