Cantor: House Must 'Pass Legislation' Securing Border Before Amnesty

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor issued a memorandum on the fall legislative schedule to House Republicans earlier this weekend, in which he said the House will remain focused on immigration efforts despite the fact most inside the beltway think the push for amnesty has lost momentum.

“We know that the current legal immigration system is broken and should be fixed in a deliberate and responsible manner,” Cantor said in the memo, which Breitbart News has obtained. “That is why the Judiciary and Homeland Security committees have produced a number of specific bills which the House may begin considering this fall.”

In the statement, Cantor said he thinks the House must “pass legislation” aimed at securing the border–not actually secure the border–before giving legal status to America’s at least 11 million illegal aliens.

“Before we consider any other reforms, it is important that we pass legislation securing our borders and providing enforcement mechanisms to our law enforcement officials,” Cantor wrote.

The distinction between passing a border security bill and actually securing the border before granting legal status, or amnesty, to America’s at least 11 million illegal aliens may seem subtle but it is important. The Senate’s “Gang of Eight” bill, for instance, promises to secure the border but most Americans understand that if legal status is granted to illegal aliens before border security actually happens, such border security is likely to never happen. Critics who take this position point to the 1986 amnesty and recent legislation that requires the construction of a border fence, among other security measures in current law that have not been implemented.