According to the Wall Street Journal today, House Republicans are drafting at “least two measures…to address the thorniest part of an immigration rewrite: how to handle the immigrants who either came to the U.S. illegally or overstayed their visas.”
The Journal reports that Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) is drafting legislation that, “will offer illegal immigrants a way to ‘get right with the law’ while addressing the problematic legal status of the 11 million.” Additionally, the Journal says that Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) “is also working on a proposal that would offer temporary legal status to qualifying illegal immigrants.”
The following is a statement from Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
As a nation we won’t be successful in fixing our broken immigration system unless we deal humanely and practically with the 11 million undocumented immigrants who are settled in America. We are pleased to have confirmed that House Republicans are preparing legislation that directly addresses the status of undocumented immigrants. Now let’s see the details. It’s impossible to evaluate or negotiate with vague public statements in the press. We need to see specific proposals on paper.
We have been clear from the beginning about what we want in a proposal regarding the 11 million: an inclusive legalization process, an achievable path to citizenship and a vote in the House of Representatives to allow the majority in the House that supports such policies to express its will. The public overwhelmingly supports reform with a path to citizenship and the Senate has already approved on a bipartisan basis a reform package that includes a path to citizenship. It’s time for the House to step up.
