Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) on Monday told a local Wisconsin radio station that the U.S. immigration system is “broken” and “indefensible” and he’ll support reform as long as it “maintains Republican, conservative principles.”
Speaking to 620WTMJ radio’s Charles Sykes, Ryan described his principles for reform as: “Guaranteed border security, guaranteed interior enforcement, no amnesty — then I think that’s productive. I think that’s in our interest. I think that’s good for our country,” he said. “A legal immigration system that’s wired for your economy, versus the chain migration system we have today where we don’t have the rule of law, we don’t know who’s coming and going — is bad.”
Contrary to the Senate-passed legislation, which sets in motion a lengthy process to legalize unauthorized immigrants while simultaneously enhancing border security, Ryan said reform must be a “verify then trust” deal where border security is established first.
“First we must have the border security, and independently verified. First we must have the interior enforcement like E-Verify in place and independently verified before the other parts of the law that they want to go into place go into place,” he said. “So it’s not a ‘trust, hope and promise.’ It’s a ‘get what we want, verify it’s there, then the rest of the law can be triggered.'”
