GOP Rep. Predicts Half of Republican Caucus Will Support Immigration Reform Legislation

Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) said he thinks at least half of the House Republican caucus will support immigration reform and believes legislation can be enacted before the end of the year. 

“To me, doing nothing is not acceptable,” Upton told a Rotary Club meeting last week, according the Kalamazoo Gazette. “I do believe that we’ll have at least half our caucus for it.”

Three Republicans have already said they would support the Democrat bill in the House, which is the Senate’s bill that provides a pathway to citizenship for all of the country’s illegal immigrants with less stringent border security provisions. The Congressional Budget Office determined the Senate’s bill would lower the wages of working class Americans.  

Upton said he supports “somewhat of a pathway to legal status,” before saying that he would be “part of a bipartisan effort to fix the problem, because it has to be fixed.”

“To me, doing nothing is not acceptable,” he said. “I hope it really does not spill into next year. I believe there is still time this year.”

Rep. David Valadao (R-CA), who is one of three House Republicans to support the Democrat bill, is circulating a petition to House Republicans to pressure House Republican leaders to bring immigration reform to the floor.