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Here is what the OP author, Trende, thinks. He favors alternative #5:
1) They are worried about the Hispanic vote.
the smarter play for Republicans here seems to be to wait until 2015 to act on a bill. After all, Republican chances for taking the Senate this year are very good if the dynamic doesn’t change. So if they can effectively lay low between now and Election Day and somehow avoid angering Independents or inflaming divisions between establishment and insurgent Republicans, they would have much greater influence over the direction of the bill in the second half of Obama’s term.
2) The Chamber of Commerce wants it.
This theory is very popular, especially among Tea Party sorts. (But) The Chamber of Commerce has wanted legislation for a very, very long time. A bill passed the Senate last summer. If the GOP was going to pass that measure to appease its corporate supporters, the smart play again would have been to get it over with early on.
3) It’s a trap for Democrats
Republicans plan on discarding the pathway to citizenship in favor of a pathway to legalization. (They) are threatening to refuse to allow any House bill to go to conference, forcing the Senate to either take it or leave it. What if the Democrats opt to “take it”? The (RAT) base knows that fights over citizenship will follow, and many believe that the GOP will eventually cave on that as well. It’s a recipe for disaster.
4) This is a PR push.
The idea would be that they would pass something with some sort of “poison pill” in it that Democrats wouldn’t swallow. But you still encounter the problem that Democrats might decide there’s no such thing as a poison pill here, within reason, and figure that they can fix any further issues with the immigration system further down the line, and call Republicans’ bluff by passing whatever comes out of the House.
5) Republicans (GOPe) are afraid of winning.
The GOPe figure the House is safe and they would rather lose control of the Senate than let in some more Mike Lee's and Ted Cruz's.

I personally believe part of why the GOP-e are going against the tide of good rightful thinking on immigration is that they are being shoved (aka blackmailed) into this by the pro-Business lobbying group the Chamber of Commerce of USA and other open border lobbyist’s. The group has been pumping umpteen millions into the pols campaigns and now the CoC is demanding payback or else. They’re now demanding ‘QUID PRO QUO’.

Being a true conservative means believing in a small(er) federal government. In Washington this means having to say “I want less power in my own hands because that’s what’s best for the country”.

Very, very few pols think this way. This is why most conservatives are hated in Washington. They’d take power away from the pols who want it.

In short, this is why the republcian party is always at war with its conservative base - because most republicans are fine with big government as long as they are in charge. This is why #5 on the list is spot on - the big government republicans can’t stand the thought of more Ted Cruz’s making their life hell, forcing them to actually act conservative.