Washington – Visiting the nation’s border in El Paso Texas, Rep. Marilyn Musgrave said today she’s steadfast in her belief that immigration laws must be enforced before a guest worker program should be considered.
But the Fort Morgan Republican said she doesn’t know whether she’d vote down a bill that had tough border security provisions if it also had a guest worker program.
“I’m going to make up my mind when I see what it is,” Musgrave said when asked about what legislation she’d accept from a committee that will merge immigration reform bills from the U.S. House and Senate. “I’m not going to predict what comes out of there.”
The U.S. House and Senate have passed immigration bills, but they vary greatly and must be merged by a conference committee. The House bill increased penalties for illegal immigration. Unlike the Senate bill, it does not include guest worker or a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. Many House members have said they will not accept those provisions.
No date has been set for that conference committee and some working on the issue behind the scenes speculate it may not happen until after the November election, to insulate Republicans who do not want to vote for anything that could be viewed as amnesty.
Musgrave traveled to the border with other lawmakers and met with members of law enforcement from Texas, Arizona and New Mexico border counties. She saw a wall built along the border in El Paso, which local law enforcement credits with cutting homicides from more than 50 a year to between 11 and 15, she said.
“There’s really no substitute for coming to the border and seeing it firsthand,” Musgrave said.
She said local law enforcement officers told her “when amnesty is mentioned, the number of illegals coming across the border increases.”
“Everyone knows if you grant amnesty, you just trigger a flood of more illegals,” she said.