Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which oversees immigration legislation, reportedly said on Thursday that he sees “no reason” why illegal immigrants should not be granted amnesty.
“If we can have a way to get [enforcement] up and operating, I see no reason why we can’t also have an agreement that shows how people who are not lawfully here can be able to be lawfully here – able to live here, work here, travel to and from their home country, be able to own a business, pay their taxes,” Goodlatte reportedly said in an interview with Telumundo that will air on Sunday, according to Politico.
In a interview with Telemundo’s “Enfoque” program, Goodlatte said House Republican leaders were drafting “immigration principles” that will try to “galvanize” support for immigration reform. House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) top amnesty adviser, Rebecca Tallent, is reportedly leading the effort to draft these “immigration principles.”
Though House Republican leaders have said they will not go to conference on the exact Senate bill, which the Congressional Budget Office determined would lower the wages of American workers, they have left open the possibility of going to conference on piecemeal bills. President Barack Obama and Democrats have said they would be fine with comprehensive immigration reform being broken up into pieces so long as all of the pieces pass.
And Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), who has said that his “Republican friends” want comprehensive immigration reform in everything but name only, said that Goodlatte was working on immigration legislation with the explicit intent of going to conference, where amnesty proponents and opponents have said that a pathway to citizenship provision would prevail.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.