Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) said Sunday that the pathway to citizenship in the immigration bill being proposed by the Gang of Eight is a “deal breaker” for him because that wants to see other aspects of reform happen first.
“The pathway to citizenship, right now, before those other element are in place, is the deal breaker for me,” Lee said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “It’s not necessarily something that would be a deal breaker down the road. I just think we need to get the other things in place first. It’s a matter of sequencing.”
Lee also argued for a series of smaller measures rather than one, comprehensive bill. “What I’m most concerned about is the fact that I think we need to undertake this in a step by step fashion,” he said. “I agree with 70 or 80 percent of what they’ve been talking about. But I think we’re best served if we start with border security and move onto decent modernization, the entry/exit system. We can get those things passed. There’s broad-based bipartisan consensus for those things. It’ll be a lot easier to deal with the 11 million once those are in place.”
