Scalise on The Ingraham Angle: Discharge Petition Will Lead to ‘Blanket Amnesty,’ is ‘Not the Right Answer’
WASHINGTON, D.C.—House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Fox News Channel’s The Ingraham Angle with Laura Ingraham to discuss misguided efforts in the House to force a vote on legislation that would grant amnesty to DACA recipients through a parliamentary tool known as a discharge petition. Whip Scalise made clear his strong opposition to this move and reinforced his support for the Goodlatte-McCaul immigration bill that would fund the wall and end programs like visa lottery and chain migration.
Click here or on the image above to watch the interview.
On the immigration debate in the House:
“I don’t want to see this discharge petition move because I want to solve the problem. I am a cosponsor of the Goodlatte-McCaul bill which really does address all of the different pillars.
“Actually fund the wall, secure the border, end chain migration, the visa lottery, and address DACA, which was a problem, by the way, that Barack Obama created. He said, ‘Hey, come to this country illegally, bring your kids. And it’s still illegal. We’re not going to try to change the law. We will just look the other way and let somebody else fix it.’
“President Trump said he actually wants to solve this problem and we’re working with President Trump to get a solution, but blanket amnesty with no border protection and no wall is not the answer.”
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“There’s now 110 miles of new wall in the omnibus, but ultimately what we want is a long-term solution. The full funding for the wall, but really the other issues are so important, too, and that is interior enforcement. Secretary Nielsen will tell you, right now this catch and release, these other programs, where she literally could have a felon come out of prison who is here illegally and she can’t deport them out of the country. We need to close those loopholes, we need to end a lot of those problems. Friends of mine like Martha McSally have worked really hard on those provisions of Goodlatte-McCaul to make sure that we can get back to rule of law and secure our border. And that’s the approach we would like to take working with President Trump who wants to solve the problem.”
On Nancy Pelosi’s endorsement of the discharge petition tactic:
“President Trump has been doing a lot to get the economy moving again, get regulations under control, work with us on so many issues like that that are really the most meaningful for people. And then you look at Nancy Pelosi. Just last week she said if she was speaker again she would raise your taxes. She would try to undo these great Trump tax cuts that we were able to get through.
“But keep in mind, when Nancy Pelosi was speaker, the entire time she had the majority, she never tried to fix this problem. It wasn’t until they lost the majority that all of a sudden she wanted to do something. So they had super majorities. They never tried to solve DACA. They want it as a political issue. We want to solve the problem, but in a way that restores rule of law and builds the wall.”
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“Jeff [Denham] is a friend, but we disagree strongly on this. I think that’s the wrong approach that he’s taking, but ultimately what we want to do is work with President Trump to find a solution. Proposing some idea that’s going to bring the Dream Act to the House floor and maybe even pass something like the Dream Act, which is blanket amnesty for more than 3 million people with no border security, that’s not only not the right answer, but President Trump would even veto that bill.
“Why don’t we continue working together to try to get a solution that President Trump would sign into law to solve the problem?
“…Let’s get the right solution that President Trump will sign.”