The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), says there’s no way in hell an immigration reform bill that includes a path to citizenship will emerge from his committee.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), chair of the Judiciary Committee that will mark up any House legislation on the issue, told NPR this week that he will not support a bill that eventually grants citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in America.
“People have a pathway to citizenship right now: It’s to abide by the immigration laws, and if they have a family relationship, if they have a job skill that allows them to do that, they can obtain citizenship,” Goodlatte said. “But simply someone who broke the law, came here, [to] say, ‘I’ll give you citizenship now,’ that I don’t think is going to happen.”
A tentative reform bill which has the support of congressional Democrats includes a path of citizenship that may take as long as 13 years for an immigrant to traverse which, if you ask me, is far too long however I do believe some path is better than no path.
For Bob Goodlattee, even a 13 year wait is apparently far too short. And he’s not the only one. Republicans in the House of Representatives have not signaled a willingness to support meaningful reform let alone a path to citizenship.
Today’s news is an indication that a bill which includes a path to citizenship may not even come to a vote in the House.
And in other news, the sky is blue.