Boehner Spox: House Will Resume Work on Immigration After Shutdown Ends

On the day Democrats in the House introduced comprehensive immigration reform legislation, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) indicated on Wednesday that the House would move on immigration legislation after an agreement is reached to end the government shutdown. 

“Once Washington Democrats allow us to reopen the federal government, House Republicans will continue to work on common-sense, step-by-step reforms to our broken immigration system,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel told USA Today.

House Republicans have been reportedly working on immigration legislation “beneath the radar” and proponents of immigration reform in the House, like Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), have suggested that he was in favor of giving a path to legalization or citizenship to all of the country’s illegal immigrants. 

If the House and Senate go to conference on immigration after the House passes some piecemeal pieces of legislation, a pathway to citizenship will likely be in the final bill–and there may be enough Republicans to join with Democrats to vote for that final bill. 

Saying that she hoped a pathway to citizenship provision would be a part of the final bill between the House and the Senate, Pelosi said that any bill that came out of the House would go to conference with the Senate and emphasized on Tuesday, as Breitbart News reported, that she and Democrats would do “whatever it takes” to ultimately conference with the Senate on an immigration reform bill.