Sen. Ron Johnson, Wisconsin Republican, said he’s planning to push legislation that would include a guest worker program and beef up border security regardless of whether or not President Obama takes some kind of executive action in the near future to stem deportations.
“Regardless of what President Obama does, I’m going to move forward with a very strong border security bill,” Mr. Johnson, who is in line to become the chairman of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, told The Associated Press. “I hope President Obama doesn’t take that executive action, because I think for many people that will poison the well and certainly make it more difficult to solve the immigration problem.”
Top Republican leaders have similarly said that if the president chooses to move unilaterally, it would dim the hopes of passing immigration reform in the new Congress, where the GOP will control both the House and Senate.
The Senate passed a sweeping immigration bill last year that would beef up border security, grant quick legal status to most illegal immigrants and provide most of them with an eventual pathway to citizenship.
Mr. Obama has repeatedly called on the Republican-controlled House to take up the Senate-passed bill, but House leaders have indicated they prefer a step-by-step approach on the issue.
“I’d prefer, and still prefer, to see it done through Congress,” Mr. Obama said in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “But every day that I wait, we’re misallocating resources, we’re deporting people that shouldn’t be deported, we’re not deporting folks that are dangerous and need to be deported.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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