During the first hearing on immigration of the 113th Congress, House Republicans honed in on seeking a middle ground between “mass deportation” of undocumented immigrants and providing a path to citizenship.
The Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Virginia, called it the question of the day.
“Are there options that we should consider between the extremes of mass deportation and a pathway to citizenship?" Goodlatte asked San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro.
“A pathway to citizenship should be the option that Congress selects," said Castro. "I don’t see that as an extreme option.”
Goodlatte said this was the first of many hearings on the many immigration issues that need fixing including: Ending chain migration, where a family member is able to send for extended family members, the green card lottery system, putting more focus on highly skilled labor while also developing an agriculture guest worker program.
That leaves the question of what to do with the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants already in the nation. So while there’s agreement that America’s immigration system is broken - one disagreement might be which parts get fixed first.
