Top Boehner Ally: GOP Has ‘Responsibility’ to ‘Compromise’ on Immigration

Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) told The Hill that the GOP-led Congress has a “responsibility to start moving serious legislation” on immigration. He pushed for a nebulous “border security” bill and those dealing with “high-tech visa reform” and seasonal labor. The tech industry, which has spent millions lobbying for more guest-worker visas that would lower the wages of American workers, covets “high-tech visa reform” even though there is no proof that America has a shortage of tech workers. In fact, the opposite is true–there is actually a significant surplus. 

Cole said Republicans must “start moving serious legislation ourselves” without mentioning bills that would defund President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty.

“Whatever we do is going to be a compromise, but I think the important thing is to start doing things,” he said, advocating a piecemeal approach to immigration reform.

Obama has repeatedly pushed for Congress to pass comprehensive amnesty legislation, and he has said multiple times that he will not sign a bill that does not provide some type of path to citizenship for nearly every illegal immigrant in the country. Republicans will most likely need the support of Democrats to pass immigration bills, and prominent Democrats like Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) have made it clear that a piecemeal approach to amnesty legislation is acceptable to them so long as Democrats under Obama get all of the pieces in the Senate’s “Gang of Eight” bill, which the Congressional Budget Office determined would lower the wages of Americans.