Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif., Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif., Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif.


Rep. Gary Miller, R-Calif., Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Colo., Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo.


Rep. Dan Webster, R-Fla., Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., Rep. Joe Heck, R-Nev.

Immigration advocates, religious groups and labor unions announced Thursday that they will target nine Republican House members (pictured above), many with substantial farm worker populations, with a campaign to try to force the House Republican leadership to bring up immigration reform legislation this year.

The campaign, branded “The Cost of Inaction,” will involve thousands of visits to constituents in the congressional districts over the next few weeks while labor unions also conduct television and online advertising campaigns to tie together the impact of current immigration rules on immigrant workers and the potential political fallout for the members if they do not convince the House Republican leadership to bring up immigration legislation.

All nine House members have said they favor a path toward legalization and citizenship, the organizers said at a news conference in the Methodist headquarters on Capitol Hill.

Two of the targeted members — Jeff Denham and David Valadao — have endorsed the Democrats’ comprehensive immigration reform, but the organizers said that they want to push them to push the leadership harder.

A third Republican, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, has also endorsed the legislation, but the organizers said they are not targeting her because they do not believe they can have an impact in her district.

The members who will be targeted won with less than 55 percent of the vote and are considered to be in toss-up districts in 2014, noted Tom Snyder, the immigration campaign director for the AFL-CIO.

Gusatavo Andrade, the organizing director of CASA in Action, said, “Latinos have long memories,” and pointed out that the number of Hispanic voters is growing every year.

Eddie Carmona, the campaign manager for Campaign for Citizenship/PICO Action Fund, said the point of the campaign is “a down payment on 2014” and to give Republicans a glimpse of what they can expect next year.

Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, praised the business community for its activism, but said he wishes business leaders would “get a little edgier.”

The Republican Party, he said, faces a choice between business and “the nihilistic tea party.”

Snyder said the combined effort between the United Farm Workers and agricultural employers “has been great,” but that the agriculture coalition and the coalition between the AFL-CIO and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce face the same difficulty in trying to convince the House leadership to take up immigration legislation.

The UFW is not directly involved in this effort, but a UFW spokeswoman said the union backs the campaign. She also noted that on Wednesday a union delegation staged a sit-in at the Bakersfield, Calif., office of House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., chanting, singing and refusing to leave until McCarthy signed a pledge to advance comprehensive immigration reform in the House.

When McCarthy’s office closed for the day at 5 p.m., the spokeswoman said, a group of 13 women refused to leave. At 11 p.m. they “succeeded in luring” him out of his home “and engaged him in conversation about his lack of leadership in advancing immigration reform,” she said.

McCarthy assured them he is “serious about solving the problem” but refused to sign a pledge to push for a House vote on immigration, the spokeswoman said.

• The Real Cost of Inaction on Immigration