House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is rebuking Senate talks of an amnesty for illegal aliens, calling it “a nonstarter” that a future House Republican majority “will fight.”
On Tuesday evening, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) suggested that he and Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) were working on a legislative plan that would provide amnesty to potentially millions of the nation’s 11 to 22 million illegal aliens.
Cornyn later told Breitbart News in a statement that the remark was “a joke.” In response, McCarthy told Axios in a statement:
Amnesty is a nonstarter with me and won’t be taken up by a House Republican majority. Our border crisis is the worst in history and the only immigration plan should be to secure the border and stop illegal immigration that’s fueling the worst drug crisis in history. House Republicans will fight for this with everything we have. [Emphasis added]
Former President Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., wrote in a statement “Good for him. More of this!” in response to McCarthy’s statement. Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) wrote that House Republicans “are united and so are our voters” against amnest,y while Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk said he wants to see “more of this” from GOP leadership.
In January, in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, McCarthy vowed not to consider any amnesty plans for illegal aliens should Republicans take back the House in this year’s midterm elections.
“We know first and foremost one of our greatest strengths is the rule of law, so you have to have an immigration system based upon the rule of law,” he said.
While McCarthy and other Republicans vow to oppose amnesty, GOP leadership has yet to issue a framework of reforms to the nation’s immigration system. A number of reform groups laid out policy papers that detailed a comprehensive legislative package to drastically cut illegal immigration.
Those papers include creating authority to immediately remove illegal aliens back to Mexico, imposing safe third country agreements with Central America to end asylum shopping, ending abuse of parole authority used to release hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens into the United States interior, and requiring implementation of Remain in Mexico, among other policy prescriptions.
Likewise, Banks’ Republican Study Committee (RSC) has presented reforms that reduce overall immigration levels to boost Americans’ wages and grow the middle class.
Banks’ reforms include ending “chain migration,” whereby newly naturalized citizens can bring an unlimited number of foreign relatives to the U.S., ending the Diversity Visa Lottery, eliminating birthright citizenship, and mandating E-Verify, among other things.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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