AMNESTY WATCH: GOP Congressman: Only Way to Pass DACA Fix Is ‘Jamming This on People’

Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas) said many of his Republican colleagues are “afraid” to vote for an immigration reform bill that includes a permanent fix for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and the only way to get it passed is “jamming this on people.”

“They are afraid of ultimately being pegged as ‘you support amnesty’ and that’s going to kill you in a Republican primary, right?” Hurd said during the discussion “Shaping Bipartisan Immigration Policy: What’s Next?” at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) Leadership Conference on Wednesday.

“This is the argument I try to make with some of my colleagues: We’re at 3.8 percent unemployment, which means every industry needs people from agriculture through artificial intelligence,” he continued. “Now is not the time we should be talking about decreasing immigration.”

Hurd introduced the Uniting and Securing America Act, or USA Act, with Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) at the beginning of the year that would “provide relief from removal and adjustment of status of certain individuals who are long-term United States residents and who entered the United States before reaching the age of 18” as well as “improve border security.”

Hurd said it was easier working with Aguilar on the issue of immigration than with his GOP colleagues.

Read the rest of the story HERE.