Paul Ryan Most 'Open Borders Person in Congress'

Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) Executive Director Mark Krikorian said on Thursday that House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is by far the most open borders-minded member of the U.S. Congress–even more so than Democrats like Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), who is aggressively and publicly calling for President Barack Obama to halt deportations of illegal aliens.

“Paul Ryan is probably the most ideologically committed open-borders person in Congress. I would say even more than the Democrats,” Krikorian said in an interview with American Family Radio’s Sandy Rios, One News Now reports.

One News Now’s Chad Groening added that Krikorian explained that “Ryan’s support is not based on money but is a ‘quasi-religious principle’ that limiting the number of people allowed into the United States is wrong.”

“Even though Krikorian believes Republicans like Boehner and Ryan would like to pass an amnesty bill, he still doesn’t think they’ll be able to get it done this year,” Groening wrote.

In response to Krikorian’s comments, Ryan’s office provided Breitbart News with a series of pro-border security statements he released on his website earlier this year.

“We need to secure the border,” Ryan said in one of them. “We are in an age of national-security threats of transnational terrorism. We have drug cartels that are trying to ship drugs in to pollute the lives of our children. We need to secure the border.”

According to a July report from the Associated Press’ Donna Cassata titled “Dems pin immigration hopes on GOP’s Ryan,” Democrats from President Obama to Gutierrez noted they were relying on Ryan to fulfill their amnesty agenda.

“Paul Ryan says we cannot have a permanent underclass of Americans, that there needs to be a pathway to citizenship,” Gutierrez said, as the AP quoted him in July. “He is my guiding light. I know I get him in trouble every time I say it.”

The AP added that President Obama’s top White House aides frequently cite Ryan’s support for amnesty. “Senior White House aides often mention the Wisconsin Republican as crucial to the prospects for legislation this year, hoping the Republican with impeccable conservative credentials will sway recalcitrant House members,” the AP wrote. “Ryan also is a reminder of two other powerful forces backing an overhaul of immigration laws — the Catholic Church and business.”