Lanhee J Chen, Columnist

Immigration Reform Didn't Die With Cantor Loss

The prevailing view in the aftermath of Cantor's loss is off the mark.

June 12, 2014 at 2:34 PM UTC

Lanhee Chen is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution who also teaches public policy at Stanford University. He was the policy director of Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign. Chen was a senior official at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the George W. Bush administration. He practiced business litigation with the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and served as the Winnie Neubauer visiting fellow in health policy studies at the Heritage Foundation. Chen earned his doctorate and master's degree in political science from Harvard University, his law degree from Harvard Law School and his bachelor's degree in government from Harvard College.

It was a big loss for Cantor. Not for immigration reform. — It was a big loss for Cantor. Not for immigration reform.

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Immigration reform is dead. That's the prevailing view after House majority leader Eric Cantor's loss in the Republican primary in Virginia on Tuesday. After all, Cantor was seen as willing to agree to immigration reform legislation, and any on-the-fence Republicans will now be scared off by his stunning defeat.

It's safe to say that nothing will pass this year. With the midterm elections just five months off, it's unlikely that any incumbents will step out in faith to engage on one of the nation's touchiest subjects. Passage of an immigration reform bill this year, even had Cantor won, was a low-probability event anyway.