Republicans have to pay attention to the Latino vote ahead of the presidential election in 2016, but they have to figure out how to do that and preserve their political base that is against rights for undocumented immigrants.

In what appears to be the start of immigration reform remaining the hot topic for the new congressional session in January, Republican lawmakers and pundits are considering several routes to fight Obama on his executive action for immigration reform and introduce their own legislation.

"What appears to be the smart move, and what they're going to do, is do immigration reform through normal legislative [channels]," Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, told The Hill. "Do it in a way that Republicans find acceptable, meaning take the border seriously [and] think of America's economic needs. Move forward on that and let them [Obama] be over in the corner stamping his feet."

Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and incoming Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are under pressure to deny funding for the agencies overseeing Obama's executive action, which is proposing a Deferred Action program for parents that could protect 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation and a give them a chance to work in the U.S. temporarily.

Conservatives are known to be pressing their leaders to include Obama's executive action on immigration reform in the GOP's lawsuit against the White House on ObamaCare.

"The president's decision to bypass Congress and grant amnesty to millions of unlawful immigrants is unconstitutional and a threat to our democracy," the committee's chairman, Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, said in a statement. "I will use every tool at my disposal to stop the president's unconstitutional actions from being implemented, starting with this oversight hearing."

The oversight hearing by the House Homeland Security Committee Meeting is to be held on Tuesday, where the Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson is set to tell critics that President Obama's reform actions are "simple common sense."

The executive actions Obama announced two weeks ago will shield some 4 million immigrants living in the country illegally from deportation, as long as they've been in the U.S. more than five years and have kids who are citizens or legal permanent residents.

Johnson is scheduled to tell the committee, "The reality is that, given our limited resources, these people are not priorities for removal -- it's time we acknowledge that and encourage them to be held accountable," Johnson said in the testimony prepared for the hearing, according to The Associate Press. "This is simple common sense."

Other conservatives see both strategies as losing propositions.

"Just saying, 'Let's repeal this,' or 'Let's not fund it' -- if that's the only reaction, that's going to antagonize Hispanics," said Alfonso Aguilar, head of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles.

Some House committee leaders are already drafting legislation. Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, wants to bolster border enforcement. Rep. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who will chair the Senate Judiciary Committee, is considering nullifying Obama's executive action.

GOP immigration reformers, however, are looking at proposals to expand visas for high-tech workers, streamline a guest-worker program for the nation's farms, establish a mandatory E-verify system for businesses and create an exit-visa registry to rein in overstays. All could pass both chambers with bipartisan support, GOP reformers said.