Yesterday’s Washington House meeting ended with the Republicans responding against the Senate immigration bill, which included a pathway to citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrants living in the United States.
Before the meeting, Speaker John A. Boehner urged the Republicans to hurry and voice their opinions about the senate’s bill.
Boehner felt that if they didn’t come up with a response to it soon, the Senate’s bill would have been passed. That is the last thing Republicans want.
Not only did the Senate bill grant a way for immigrants to become citizens, but it also asked for tough border security provisions, which would need to be in place before these immigrants were granted citizenship.
Well, the House gave a response on the bill, and it’s the complete opposite of everything that was proposed. This meeting occurred just hours after former President George W. Bush gave his two cents on immigration at the naturalization ceremony at his presidential center.
“The laws governing the immigration system aren’t working,” Mr. Bush said. “The system is broken. We’re now in an important debate in reforming those laws. And that’s good.” Mr. Bush said he did not intend “to get involved in the politics or the specifics of policy. But I do hope there is a positive resolution to the debate, and I hope during the debate that we keep a benevolent spirit in mind and we understand the contributions that immigrants make to our country.”
House Republicans are finding themselves in a very difficult predicament because of this bill. They still want to broaden its appeal to the Hispanic population and potentially receive its support, but at the same time, they want to take into account the views of constituents’ largely safe conservative districts.
“Comprehensive’ has always been a swear word in the House of Representatives, but having a step-by-step approach that deals with the issue comprehensively, I don’t think that’s dead,” said Representative Raúl Labrador, Republican of Idaho, a Hispanic legislator who until recently had been part of a bipartisan group in the House working on a broad immigration proposal.
We’ll have to wait and see what happens.
SOURCE: NY Times
