Dreamers Immigration Reform 2013 News: Head of House Judiciary Committee Refuses to Budge
Some stubborn Republican politicians are still refusing to budge when it comes to immigration reform.
In rather contradictory fashion, Head of House Judiciary Committee Bob Goodlatte told a radio host that "there is a more compelling argument to be made" for young children who are brought to the country by foreign parents, but he also said he would be against any policy that would allow a path to citizenship for them.
"In other words, they get that legal status if they have an employer who says I've got a job which I can't find a U.S. citizen and I want to petition for them, ah, they can do that, but I wouldn't give them the pathway to a Green Card and ultimately citizenship," Goodlatte said to The Washington Post.
On Monday, Goodlatte said at a town hall that there is no real consensus on what the answer should be. Clearly if his own comments are wavering and contradictory, he does not have his mind completely made up. But if his comments this week indicate anything, it is that his views lean far more to the right than someone who might just be "on the fence" about the issue.
President Barack Obama has stressed that this debate cannot keep going on an endless cycle. Obama referred to the path to citizenship during a speech about immigration reform earlier this year.
"We have to deal with the 11 million individuals who are here illegally," he said. "We all agree that these men and women should have to earn their way to citizenship. But for comprehensive immigration reform to work, it must be clear from the outset that there is a pathway to citizenship."