On Monday, despite House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) shocking primary loss last week that was viewed as a referendum against amnesty legislation, former Mississippi Governor and lobbyist Haley Barbour said the House could still pass amnesty legislation this year.
“I don’t think Eric’s loss should have anything to do with it,” Barbour said at the New York Meeting before pushing for a bill that would give a pathway to citizenship to “everybody who’s here illegally” so long as they confess they are in America illegally, pay fines and back taxes, and are put on probation.
Barbour said the House should pass “a very strong bill” that is to the right of the Senate’s comprehensive amnesty bill and emphasized that “we gotta control the border at the end of the day or the American people will have a right to be furious with us.”
Barbour talked about the struggling American economy and blamed Obama’s policies for the country’s lack of jobs, but he refused to acknowledge that amnesty legislation that would flood the U.S. with more foreign workers would make it tougher for Americans to find jobs while lowering their wages.
He also referenced the thousands of illegal immigrant children who are flooding across the U.S. border and being warehoused without mentioning that they are coming to the United States thinking they will be granted amnesty. When President Barack Obama indicates he will unilaterally ease deportations or Barbour pushes for amnesty legislation, they entice more illegal immigrants to make the treacherous trek to America.
The monthly meeting is run by Mallory Factor and O’Brien Murray, and panelists included the Wall Street Journal‘s James Taranto and Mary Kissel and the New York Times‘s Jim Rutenberg.