Rep. Goodlatte (R-VA): House GOP Will Back 'Pathway to Legalization,' Not 'Pathway to Citizenship'

On Sunday’s State of the Union (CNN), Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) blamed Republicans in the House for not simply agreeing to the Senate immigration reform bill passed with a 68-32 vote last week. He said that House Republicans were worried about a “Republican solution” rather than a bipartisan one. “What the House Republicans are doing is giving a Republican solution. And a Republican solution isn’t what we saw was successful in the Senate,” he said.

“The speaker of the House now has to decide whether or not he is going to allow the American people to speak. There are a majority of Democrats and Republicans whoa re ready to solve this problem.” It is certainly untrue that a majority of Republicans voted for the Senate bill.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) responded by saying that the Democrats have not proposed anything approaching bipartisanship in the House. “Until Democrats in the House are willing to work with Republicans to get a solution in the House that a majority of House Republicans will support it,” said Goodlatte, nothing would happen. Goodlatte said that House Republicans could back a bill for a “pathway to legalization” rather than a “pathway to citizenship.”