Walker: ‘There’s a Way’ You Can Have Path to Citizenship

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) said that “there’s a way” to have a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants while expressing his opposition to amnesty in an interview broadcast on “Fox News Sunday.”

Host Chris Wallace played a clip of Walker saying that he could envision giving illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship with the right waiting periods and penalties, and then asked if such a position constituted a belief in amnesty. Walker responded, “I don’t believe in amnesty, part of the reason why I made that a firm position is I look at the way that this president has mishandled that issue…going forward, I think the way you enforce it [immigration law] is not through amnesty. I think the better approach is to enforce the laws and to give employers, job creators, the tools, like E-Verify and other things, to make sure the law is being upheld going forward.”

Wallace continued to press Walker on a pathway to citizenship, Walker then said, “I believe there’s a way that you can do that. First and foremost, you have got to secure that border, or none of these plans make any sense.”

The discussion then turned to Walker’s 2013 support of the Kennedy-McCain comprehensive immigration plan and whether he would be willing to give a pathway to citizenship as part of a plan to increase border security and E-Verify. Walker said that he was not in favor of a comprehensive plan and admitted that his “view has changed” since 2013.

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