Wall Street Journal
January 9, 2014
WASHINGTON–Sixteen House Republicans vehemently rejected President Barack Obama’s calls for the House to overhaul the immigration system in a letter sent to the president on Wednesday.
A group of 16 of the House’s most conservative lawmakers criticized Mr. Obama for supporting an immigration bill passed by the Senate last year that would allow illegal immigrants already living in the U.S. to eventually become U.S. citizens.
Congress should be focused on lowering unemployment, reducing poverty and increasing wages for U.S. workers, the lawmakers wrote to Mr. Obama. “Your immigration proposals do the exact opposite on every count.”
Signers of the letter include vocal critics of the Senate’s pathway to citizenship, such as Rep. Mo Brooks (R., Ala.), and a handful of lawmakers running for Senate seats in this year’s midterm elections: GOP Reps. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Phil Gingrey of Georgia and Steve Stockman of Texas.
In their letter, the lawmakers wrote that broad immigration reform would benefit “big businesses who want to reduce labor costs,” but would be “an awful deal” for U.S. workers.
“Is it the position of the White House that the hotel industry cannot be asked to find employees from among the legions of unemployed residing here today?” the letter asked.
Some employers, such as dairy farmers, have said they cannot find enough U.S. citizens willing to take the jobs they are trying to fill. Labor unions, which supported the Senate bill, have said an immigration overhaul would help lift workers out of poverty.
Earlier Wednesday, both House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) listed a rewrite of immigration laws as among their top priorities for the coming year in a closed-door meeting with Republican lawmakers. The 16 lawmakers who signed the letter to Mr. Obama are unlikely to support most immigration legislation that could pass the House.
Some advocates of a sweeping immigration overhaul took the House leaders’ comments as a positive sign for an immigration rewrite, whose prospects appeared bleak late last year.
“Things continue to look better and better for immigration reform, and we hope to work with Republicans to get something real done,” Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) said in a statement Wednesday.
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