It’s “highly unlikely” that a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants can win a majority of Republican votes in the House, a veteran GOP congressman said Wednesday.
“I think at this point that would be highly unlikely,” Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) told reporters at a breakfast organized by the Christian Science Monitor.
“Because I don’t think there’s any trust in our conference in the administration to enforce the current laws that are on the books as they relate to immigration,” he explained. “And not just this administration — it’s been previous administrations as well. … The promises made in [the immigration reform effort of] 1986 have been broken.”
Price said the first step to rebuilding that trust would be to secure the border.
The congressman’s comments, if accurate, suggest that it’ll be a tough slog for proponents of a pathway to citizenship to pass the policy in the House. It would require Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to permit an immigration bill to come to the floor without the support of half his conference — an approach he has typically rejected and shown little appetite for.
Price advocated for a piecemeal — as opposed to comprehensive — approach to reform.
“Wouldn’t we be better off in the area of immigration if we had done a bill every Congress for the last few? Wouldn’t we be further ahead?” he said. “I do believe [we should] have the issue be solved in portions as opposed to this comprehensive overall solution that clearly hasn’t worked in the past and I don’t see it working now.”
Price is one of the more conservative members of the House and has served in leadership positions. He lost a bid this year to be GOP Conference Chairman. He has a long opposed a pathway to citizenship and voted against benefits and incentives for unauthorized immigrants.
