Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview on Wednesday that “we knew all along” that the Trump-endorsed Goodlatte bill had more support than the Ryan amnesty bill and charged that the Goodlatte bill should be the “starting point” on immigration.
On Wednesday, the Paul Ryan amnesty bill failed to pass through the House and garnered far fewer votes than the Trump-endorsed Goodlatte immigration bill. The Ryan amnesty bill failed 121-301, with at least 111 Republicans against and and no Democrats for the bill.
Gosar, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, told Breitbart News that it did not shock any conservatives to see that more Republicans support the Goodlatte bill over the Ryan amnesty legislation.
Congressman Gosar said, “It’s something that we knew all along. They were not going to get those votes on that compromise bill and that the starting point should really be the Goodlatte bill. Maybe there are some ways that we can tweak it, but we need to do it right, don’t rush the process.”
Breitbart News reported that the Ryan amnesty bill could have become the largest amnesty in American history, provided amnesty to nearly 3.5 million Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) illegal aliens.
In contrast to the Ryan bill, the more conservative Goodlatte immigration bill nearly passed through the House with 193 votes for and 231 votes against the legislation.
Former Freedom Caucus chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) said this week that the Goodlatte bill “would’ve passed” if Speaker Paul Ryan actually lobbied for the bill.
Rep. Lou Barletta (R-PA) predicted in an interview last week that the Ryan amnesty bill “has far less support” than the Goodlatte bill.
Gosar continued, suggesting that he and other conservatives were frustrated by the process and that the Republican leadership was “jamming this down people’s throats.”
“I’ve been very upset about the process. Bad process builds bad policy and bad politics and thus where we are today,” the Arizona conservative said. “This is one of those things that you have to share with the American people, you have to do piece by piece by piece.”
Rep. Gosar said regarding the Ryan amnesty legislation, “I think there were some parts that people liked, I think there were some interesting things that Raul Labdrador [R-ID] came up with that I think that people would be very intrigued by, but they would need to be flushed out. They were jamming this down people’s throats, so people got antsy and once again this is being rushed and incomprehensive in nature.”
“The thing is that trust is a series of promises kept, so we’re a little sore, and America is little sore going all the way back to Reagan,” Gosar added. “Reagan said that he would not do amnesty because he did not get border security. Once again you reward good behavior and you do it by piece by piece by piece slowly but surely.”
The Arizona Republican then pivoted towards actions that President Donald Trump can take to help mitigate America’s southern border crisis, saying, “Under international law, any foreign national that crosses an international border, the first border they cross they becomes an asylum of that country. We have been looking at central America much differently than we should be, they really are Mexican asylees. That allows us a lot of luxury in the way that we handle them; it allows us 24 hours to figure out if they are here the right way, for the right reasons or the wrong reasons. If they’re wrong in the way, we should keep the families together and give them some toiletries and put them on a plane to Mexico City. Now we know that there is a huge part of this that is human trafficking. Why don’t we invest in genomics and genetic testing to see if these kids really have parents. If we have them together, we have the lawbreakers, and we can get them for trafficking and smuggling of human trafficking which everybody should be against. I’ll tell you what: incarceration at the point of entries would send a resounding aspect of negativity to the caravans.”
“Congress also has to regain its jurisdiction over this. You know Barack Obama violated it [the Constitution] through this [DACA]. I think that we need a declaratory judgment against the executive branch and say that DACA is null and void under that jurisdiction and then we redefine that,” Gosar added.
Congressman Gosar said with limited court jurisdiction “you limit the expansion of what the bureaucracy fully intends to do that [amnesty], particularly with the courts flooded with Obama appointees.”
“I think that people have seriously misread the tea leaves. The American people wants defensible borders, they want border security, they don’t feel safe with the current situation, they don’t want this unitarian government, they want the USA,” Gosar said.
Gosar concluded, “America should decide who gets to come into this country and becomes part of the American fabric, not the immigrants themselves.”
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