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“We should focus on common ground on legal status,” House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) told a group of reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast Wednesday morning. “Once you have that status, you can qualify like everyone else.”
Goodlatte did not rule out a path to citizenship eventually, but not in this round.
“There are large number of people here unlawfully,” Goodlatte said. “It’s not a good thing to have them operating in the shadows.”
But he said that does not mean they should get to the front of the line, so to speak, and become citizens. He called the immigration system “broken,” but “rather than get bogged down in semantics, we should try to find common ground to pass legislation.”
Goodlatte said he has had discussions with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R) and has respect for what he and the Gang of Eight in the Senate are trying to accomplish on immigration, but he said he had “some concerns” about some of the proposals laid out. But he declined to say specifically what those concerns are.
“I wont be able to write the bill in the room with you,” he said.
He also called for bills to be passed with “regular order,” meaning the House pass legislation, the Senate pass its version and then the two chambers conference to find “common ground.”
Despite what was an overwhelming victory by President Obama with Hispanics during the 2012 election – he won 71 percent of Latinos – there is still staunch opposition in many GOP corners on immigration reform. Goodlatte seemed to tacitly acknowledge that.
“We’d like to see what they produce,” he said of the Senate. But, he added, it was necessary to “take the temperature” of members of his committee and the wider body of Republicans in the House to “see what can produce common ground.”
Asked by longtime political reporter Mark Shields of PBS, whether the Republican Party’s problems were the “pizza” or “the box,” in other words the substance or the packaging, Goodlatte said it was the box.
“It’s primarily our inability to communicate our message in a variety of ways,” Goodlatte argued, adding, “Our message still resonates with a lot of people; we have to figure out how to get it to resonate with more.”
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Come to think of it, the Pilgrims were illegal immigrants, weren't they?
NO. What laws were the Pilgrims violating (citation please)?
NO. What laws were the Pilgrims violating (citation please)?
Ask the Native Americans that.
Because 1600's America had no nation and no immigration system, we can't have one in modern times
--Genius Liberals assure us
I hate to say it but some rare sound, fair remark from a republican.
Even though it sounds as harsh by not granting citizenshipto illegals currently in US, it is still very humanitarian and pregressive thinking in general.
We really do not need more citizens,and, illegals are not really focused on becoming "citizens" either. They just want to be treated like human being..
There we go Lan, there we go, see?! A wise leftwinger. Why would leftwingers who love the environment so much want to vastly increase the size of our major cities with another 11 million permanent citizen residents overnight?
Do you want a bunch of connected mega cities between LA and San-Fran-Sick-0 or do you want some green space in between?
The article fairly reports what a reasonable man should say let's wait and see what is proposed before we agree to deny or accept. The 11 million people here should not be put ahead of the immigrants that immigrated legally period. There should be a path to citizenship but no blanket amnesty which is what most libs want. I'm not qualified to say what the path should be but any path that puts them ahead of the people who've been playing by the rules is wrong. Saying it's too hard to deal with eleven million people so let's grandfather them make anybody suspect the real intention is pandering for votes.
Well said. Would you also agree that we must secure the border before we can move forward with any type of immigration reform.
We need to Stop ILLEGAL immigration! They're not just doing jobs that Americans don't want. Do they pay taxes? Don't get me wrong most of these people work very hard, but are a drain on the system if they don't pay taxes, have healthcare coverage, learn the language or get paid wages that are in line with their American counterparts. Who's footing the bill for the education of their children and the infrastructure around them? We all know that the health care provided to uninsured illegals here in the states is being averaged into our hospital costs and our insurance premiums, which have PROPORTIONATELY increased along with illegal immigration over the last 20 years? These costs are also being passed along to Medicaid and Medicare, which means that not only are they increasing our insurance premiums, but that we're paying for them again with our tax dollars.
Our tax dollars and insurance premiums should not be used to recoup the cost of healthcare given to illegal immigrants, who shouldn't even be here in our country in the first place.
To the people that disagree, we should ask them should this: If a few illegal immigrants knocked on your door and demanded that you pay some medical bills for them, would you pay them?
Just look around and you'll see who's doing 90% of the residential renovations, construction and property maintenance jobs. That's certainly what we're seeing in the northeast. These are not just jobs that Americans don't want.
Unfortunately the hiring of cheap illegal labor causes a chain reaction. The contractors who hire cheap, uninsured, non-taxpaying, ILLEGAL aliens undercut the contractors who hire US Citizens or Legal immigrants. Even if the contractor wants to continue to employ US Citizens or Legal tax-paying immigrants, they end up replacing their Legal employees with illegals just to be able to get the jobs.
Let's get the good productive ILLEGAL Aliens into the system and paying federal and state income tax or get them out and not let more in unless they come in as Legal Immigrants. Make them apply for legal visas and or U.S. citizenship and if they don't, then get them out. If they get rejected get them out or give them one quick appeal and if they still get rejected, then get them out.
Let's send the bad ILLEGAL Aliens back to where they came in and let's put a stop to more ILLEGAL Aliens getting in.
Gee, thanks Bob. Thanks for once again showing the Virginia is full of ignorant, small minded people. Thankfully he is not in my district but I get to deal with Morgan Griffith which isn't much better.
Good thing you don't have a liberal puke, isn't it? Probly be using your tax money for sex change operations.
There are some in the GOP who would rather be right (far right) than president. The problem is having set up one's party as the party of older white males who fear the changing demographics of America is that one can either alienate one's base, and thereby lose in a primary, or lose in the general election if the outcome is not pre-ordained by Gerrymandering.
Bullcrap, bullcrap, bullcrap---I have no basis for supporting illegal immigration so I'll just cover myself by claiming those who are against it are racist----bullcrap, bullcrap, bullcrap.
Reagan / Simpson promised their amnesty would include employer enforcement on hiring. Did we see it??
Now we jump decades in the future. Same problem exists. Large & small companies, hiring illegals for they give the domestic employer, what the multi-nationals see in China. Low pay, no regulations, power over employes , and no Social Security & Medicare paperwork.
We've had bi-partisan looking the other way to illegal hiring, for decades.
Do you see these politicians chasing votes?? Or solving the problem?? See them talking about the employers?????
So tomorrow , let's say we have amnesty. Now supposedly the former illegals can pay into Social Security & Medicare, and reap earned rewards. Let's call that a good thing.
But the day after tomorrow, the legal employee is fired, and replaced with a illegal?? We start the cycle again.
So where's the debate on illegal employer enforcement?? I don't see it.
Absolutely correct, Scar. As soon as they are amnestied and the business community realizes that they must pay them minimum wage or better, they'll be tossed aside and replaced with new illegals from the next wave of border running. Then we'll be stuck with the bill for their social services.
Bob Woodward helped bring down Nixon - Now calling out Obama - for lying to the people
Woodward writes the White House has been deliberately disingenuous about its role in the sequester, and accused Obama of "moving the goal posts" by insisting Republicans agree to new tax revenue as part of any substitute for the sequester. "That was not the deal he made," he says.
Woodward's report has rankled administration officials, particularly since it undermines the narrative the White House has been pushing ahead the March 1 sequester deadline.
The administration does not directly dispute what Woodward's reporting.
"It was said very clearly: 'you will regret doing this,'" Woodward told CNN. "I'm not going to say [who], a very senior person. It makes me very uncomfortable to have the White House telling reporters you're going to regret doing something you believe in."
What is wrong with our immigration laws as they stand?
The only thing I can come up with is that those we elected into office have refused, and are refusing to enforce them, creating this problem. The laws against hiring illegal aliens are not being enforced.
What is wrong with our gun laws as they stand?
The only thing I can come up with is that those we elected into office have refused, and are refusing to enforce them, creating this problem. Only 1% of people who lied on their background checks have been prosecuted.
What is wrong with our illegal drug laws as they stand?
The only thing I can come up with is that those we elected into office have refused, and are refusing to enforce them, creating this problem. The majority of illegal drugs come across the mexican border, and they have refused to secure it.
Seems to me the only problems we're having is getting those we elect to enforce the laws of the United States of America.
Is that in their Oath of Office?
The GOP doesn't seem to understand that, no matter what, Latinos won't vote for Republicans. All this is doing is increasing the roles of folks who love freebies and will vote for the party that gives it to them.
There are two types of people. Those who work for a living and those who vote for a living.
Bob Woodward - being attacked now by liberal democrats in administration
"But suppose there's a young reporter who's only had a couple of years — or 10 years' — experience and the White House is sending him an email saying, ‘You're going to regret this,'" Woodward said. "You know, tremble, tremble. I don't think it's the way to operate."
just make all the illegals instant citizens...they deserve it, since they came here looking for a better life, skirting the law, taxes, getting benefits, voting, etc...they are almost American already...just think of all the voters the Republicans will get out of 12 million highly skilled illegals becoming instant citizens who won't instantly apply for welfare, nor have 10 kids per family and raise our taxes even more to support them