Republican congressman Bob Goodlatte- Immigration Zero

Republican congressman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia has drawn a line in the sand

by repeatedly stating he will not vote for any immigration reform that leads to a path to citizenship for the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants in our country.

He told a town hall meeting in the Shenandoah Valley in August, 2013, that,

“the House must chart its own course on immigration even if it never results in a bill President Barack Obama can sign.”

To further clarify his point, he said that,

“he’ll do everything he can to ensure the House never takes up the Senate’s comprehensive immigration bill, which includes a path to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants in the country illegally.”

If you read the full article you will see he also places the blame for not passing immigration reform squarely on the Democrats by stating,

“The folks who want to have a path to citizenship have held everything else hostage.”

So, by his rationale, anyone who insists on something being in the future immigration reform bill is holding the legislature hostage, doesn’t that also apply to the Republicans for having the exact opposite position? After all, if you state you “will not vote for any immigration reform that leads to a path toward citizenship, and are going to make sure the House never takes up the Senate bill,” aren’t you, by the same standard, doing the exact same thing? And by refusing to put the Senate bill to a vote, isn’t that just like shooting the only horse in the race? It is, after all, the Democrats, along with a few Republicans, who have been working tirelessly to propose an immigration bill that the Republicans could get behind. All the Republicans have done is refuse to bring it to a vote.