Are plans for a new amnesty bill dead now too?

“They can introduce the bill, but it’s going to have a very difficult time with all of the other agenda items,” said James Thurber, director of American University’s Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies. “We have lots of Democratic seats in trouble in the House, and this particular issue is an issue that doesn’t play very well in some of those Blue Dog districts. I think the leadership will be very careful about pushing it, and the president will also.”…

“In my opinion, [reform] will be even more unpopular than last time,” Thurber said. He called arguments that legalization will benefit the economy “very hard” to make. “People don’t see it.”

However, immigration reform proponents insist they can overcome any new resistance created by increased unemployment and the perception that illegal immigrants take jobs from Americans.

“It will certainly confuse the debate a lot more, but at the end of the day, what we have to understand is that fixing this system will be good for American workers,” Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union, said in a conference call with reporters Monday.