Congressman Paul Gosar (R-AZ) told Breitbart News he fully expects Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to read the entirety of the reported 1,500-page immigration reform bill dropping on in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday ahead of her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
“This bill is shaping up to be Obamacare 2.0,” Gosar said in a statement provided to Breitbart News. “Thousands of pages cooked up behind closed doors and dropped without enough time for members or the public to read what is being voted on.”
Several media reports indicate the bipartisan Senate group, dubbed the “Gang of Eight,” will drop their bill on Tuesday. Despite protests from committee conservatives, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT) has only agreed to one hearing on the expected-to-be massive legislation, and he scheduled that hearing for Wednesday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. Thus far, the only scheduled hearing witness is Napolitano.
“I fully expect Secretary Janet Napolitano to have read the bill in its entirety prior to giving her testimony,” Gosar said. “No responsible official can support legislation rushed like this.”
“Gang of Eight” member Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) says he supports multiple hearings on the legislation, but he has not fought Leahy for extra hearings and Leahy appears content with just the one. Rubio again said during his Sunday show charm offensive that he supports an open and transparent process, but his actions have not matched his words.
In addition to the expectation that the Gang of Eight, Senate Democratic leadership and Republican House leadership will rush this bill through without thoroughly examining it, there are numerous reports that it has been heavily influenced by and even written by special interest groups like the AFL-CIO and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Officials from President Barack Obama’s White House participated in the bill writing process too, but those intimately involved in the backroom legislation writing have actively blocked law enforcement experts like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents’ union president Chris Crane and other agents from participating in writing the bill.
Despite having not consulted any law enforcement specialists in writing the legislation, on CBS News’ Face The Nation during his charm offensive on Sunday, Rubio said the still-not-introduced legislation “puts in place the toughest enforcement measures in the history of the United States, potentially in the world.”
But as Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) has noted in a previous press release, details of the plan that have been leaked to media by Gang of Eight offices show that border security will not come before legalization, or amnesty, for the at least 11 million illegal immigrants in the country. Sessions said, too, in a Sunday press release that Gang of Eight members have now also openly admitted that their plan will not secure the border before granting illegal immigrants amnesty.
“When the Gang of Eight was first formed a publicly stated principle was the enforcement would come first–before legalization,” Sessions said. “Today, on the Sunday shows, Gang of Eight members admitted that they abandoned this principle and that, in fact, legalization–or amnesty–would come first. This proposal offers immediate legalization with unfulfilled promises of enforcement in the future. This is contrary to the commitment they made to the American people and raises the same core problem as the 2007 proposal that was rejected by the American people. This should not surprise given that Gang of Eight has refused to meet with ICE officers while consulting with the special interests. The proposal will not stand up to scrutiny.”
Crane, the president of the ICE agents’ union, said in a previous release on Friday that he thinks it is a “dark day” for America when AFL-CIO leaders do things like openly threaten to “steamroller” any lawmakers who oppose amnesty. AFL-CIO director of immigration Ana Avendaño made the threat on Wednesday. Crane said the AFL-CIO and the Chamber of Commerce and other special interest groups all “stand to make billions from illegal aliens under the new legislation.”
Gosar told Breitbart News that this kind of lobbyist and special interest influence in legislation that does not actually solve problems is troubling.
“It is this type of back-room deal making that Americans detest and myself and the new class of members were sent to D.C. to stop,” Gosar said.
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