The House GOP’s new immigration framework will include support for a path to legal status for adult immigrants living in the country without documents, according to The New York Times.
The GOP’s statement of principles on immigration reform will also include a pathway to citizenship for DREAMers, young undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country as children, according to the report.
The principles will include caveats as well, including the requirement that the United States secure its borders and that current immigration laws are fully enforced before undocumented immigrants currently living in the country are granted legal status.
The GOP principles also criticizes the American higher education system for educating some of the world’s best and brightest students only to lose them to their home countries because they cannot obtain green cards.
According to the Times, the principles outline how far the GOP is willing to go on immigration, rather than offer a starting point for negotiations, and that the document feels like an attempt to test the waters, rather than outline a blueprint for action.
Despite this being an election year, comprehensive immigration reform will be a key topic of debate in the House in the upcoming months. Clearly, House Republicans have seen the writing on the wall that something needs to be done to fix our broken immigration system. While their principles are far from ideal, it’s encouraging that steps are being taken.
This is the time that we keep the pressure on the push for comprehensive immigration reform, with a path to citizenship for the 11 million aspiring Americans living in the shadows.
