Also Obama practically BEGGED the Republicans to tackle the issue and they refused...just sat on it in congress....so Obama made the decision for them
they didn't want to piss off hispanics (romney only got 27% hisp vote, while bush got 44%). They'll never win a prez election again with those kinda numbers.
they didn't want to piss off the base - Eric cantor got kicked to the curb by being the first major pro-amnesty canddiate. the rest realized it's political suicide.
So rather than be strong on it, either way, they just STFU and yelled about obama. It's like seeing a puppy drowining, and not wanting to piss off your kids, who love the puppy, by letting it drown... but not wanting to piss off the cat, who hates the puppy, by rescuing it... So you just let it drown and blame whoever left the damn door open to let the puppy in the pool, in ths first place. Fail thru inaction.