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WASHINGTON Just a week after Republicans raised hopes for a bipartisan overhaul of the nation's immigration laws, House Speaker John A. Boehner all but abandoned the effort Thursday, saying it would be "difficult" to get any legislation approved this year by his GOP majority.

Boehner's sudden shift, coming after his high-profile unveiling last week of Republican immigration principles that were partly embraced by the White House, left immigration advocates fuming and renewed speculation that the speaker's tenuous grip on a rebellious rank-and-file was slipping again.

It also raised questions about the GOP's effort to rebrand itself among Latinos and other minority voters, who largely abandoned the Republican Party in the 2012 presidential election, and many of whom see immigration reform as a top priority.

At a Republican retreat Jan. 30, Boehner proposed a set of immigration reforms that included legal status for the 11 million people living in the U.S. illegally but no special path to citizenship. The next day, President Obama hinted that a compromise might be achievable, even though he had previously pushed for a special route to citizenship.

Boehner received a far less enthusiastic and at times hostile response from his own party's conservatives, who complained there was little value in engaging in an issue that deeply divides Republicans. Top GOP strategists warned that undertaking immigration reform this year would turn off the conservative voters they need this fall to retain the House majority and flip control of the Senate.

Conservative activists who view legal status for immigrants as "amnesty" flooded Boehner's office telephones this week. One group, ForAmerica, made an estimated 5,500 calls to the switchboard. Comments on the speaker's website were harsh: "You are a turncoat," read one.

Some of the more outspoken tea party lawmakers in the House renewed their threats to unseat Boehner from the speaker's chair.

Rep. Raul R. Labrador (R-Idaho), among the hard-liners, suggested that any moves by Boehner to bring up immigration legislation this year "would be a terrible mistake on his part, a political miscalculation on his part. And that's why I don't think he's going to do it."

At his weekly media briefing, Boehner acknowledged the opposition. "I've never underestimated the difficulty in moving forward this year," he said.

Some Republican analysts suggested Boehner's comments were an attempt to lower expectations on a reform bill while he shores up support among reluctant lawmakers.

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Republicans back away from immigration reform - latimes.com