New York Times
By Emmarie Huetteman
February 2, 2014
Republican lawmakers on Sunday remained vague on whether they would support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants as many Democrats do, focusing instead on related issues like border security and enforcement while leaving uncertain the prospects for a broader overhaul of the system.
Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House majority leader, largely deflected questions on the CBS News program “Face the Nation” about how far Republicans would be willing to go to change the immigration system. Last week, Republican leaders signaled that they might support a path to legal status, as opposed to citizenship, for adults who entered the country illegally.
Asked by Major Garrett of CBS News about offering citizenship to undocumented workers, Mr. Cantor answered indirectly: “There’s a lot of focus on the immigration issue. But you know, in reality, we not only want to help the situation there,” he said, shifting next to pocketbook issues.
“We know that 75 percent of Americans are living from paycheck to paycheck,” he added. “We’ve come up with some real solutions to help America work for those people, too.”
Pressed by Mr. Garrett about internal party divisions on the issue, Mr. Cantor said: “So far as immigration is concerned, we’ve said all along we don’t believe in a comprehensive fix. We want to go in a step-by-step approach to try and address the problems.”
Mr. Cantor did say that House Republicans would not consider the bill passed by the Democratic-controlled Senate last June, which included a 13-year path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
House Republican leaders emerged from their annual retreat last week with a one-page document describing their position on immigration, which included an opportunity for many of the country’s 11 million undocumented workers to earn legal status, a statement that pitted many Republicans against their party’s leadership.
Mr. Cantor said on CBS that Congress should address the issue of children who are brought to the country illegally, a subject on which there is consensus. The document released by Republicans on Thursday, called “Standards for Immigration Reform,” said there should be a path to legal status and citizenship for such immigrants.
Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, appearing on the CNN program “State of the Union” on Sunday, said Congress needed to find a way to reverse “a completely backwards system” in which it is easy to enter illegally and hard to enter legally.
“What I believe we need is a system of high walls and a broad gate,” Mr. Jindal said. “Right now we’ve got the opposite — we’ve got low walls and a narrow gate.”
Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin said on the ABC News program “This Week” that before they would agree to anything else, Republicans would push for increased border security and enforcement that included employment verification and visa tracking.
“We don’t think that we can allow this border to continue to be overrun,” he said. “And if we can get security first, no amnesty, before anything happens, we think that’s a good approach.”
Republicans on Sunday emphasized their distrust that President Obama would enforce existing immigration laws. Mr. Ryan said because of that, Republicans need to verify that the proper security measures are in place before they move forward on broader immigration issues.
Asked whether he believed Congress could pass a law overhauling the immigration system this year, Mr. Ryan said he did not know.
“If we can do that where it’s security first, no amnesty, then we might be able to get somewhere, but I just don’t know if that’s going to be the case or not,” he said.
Denis McDonough, the White House chief of staff, said on CBS that although the White House would wait to see what House Republicans proposed, Mr. Obama wanted to offer undocumented immigrants an opportunity to become citizens.
“We don’t want to have a permanent separation of classes or two permanent different classes of Americans in this country,” Mr. McDonough said. “We’re just not going to live with that.”
In an interview with CNN recorded earlier this week and aired on Sunday, Mr. Obama expressed optimism about the prospects for an immigration overhaul.
“I genuinely believe that Speaker Boehner and a number of House Republicans, folks like Paul Ryan, really do want to get a serious immigration reform bill done,” he said.
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