A bill being drafted by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) that would offer citizenship to many undocumented immigrants brought here illegally as children has the backing of House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). Boehner said at a news conference on Wednesday that the legislation, one of the most consistently popular immigration reform ideas across the general public, was "about basic fairness". No other details on it have not yet been made public, but the judiciary committee which Goodlotte heads will hold a hearing on it next week.
"These children were brought here of no accord of their own, and frankly they're in a very difficult position," said Boehner. "And I think many of our members believe that this issue needs to be addressed."
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Majority Leader Eric Cantor concurred, saying, "These in many instances are kids without a country if we don't allow them to become full citizens of our country. It is not only an issue of fairness, as the speaker said, it's an issue of decency and compassion. Where else would these kids go?"
It's unclear how much support the bill will receive among Republican representatives. In early June, the House held a symbolic vote to defund the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, an Obama administration order which deferred removal procedures for young adults who came to the United States before the age of 16, graduated from high school or served in the military, and had clean criminal records. The vote passed 224 to 201.
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But that vote might have been more of a gesture of defiance toward President Obama than one of opposition to the bill. Under him, the Department of Homeland Security had prioritized deportation procedures to exclude DREAMers, a policy which House Republicans equated with "waiving" immigration law.
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The bill, if accepted by House Republicans, would be a step closer to a compromise between conservatives and liberals who supported the Senate's comprehensive immigration reform bill, which would offer a path to citizenship to some 8 million of the 11 million undocumented (Boehner says the House will not consider the Senate's bill). President Barack Obama insisted on Tuesday night on Spanish-language television that a path to citizenship for the nation's undocumented "needs to be part" of immigration reform. It remains to be seen how much the two sides are willing to bend on the issue of how many of the undocumented would become eligible.
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