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At town hall, Rep. Bob Goodlatte opposes immigration bill

Pro-immigration reform organizations such as Virginia Organizing turned out to try to sway him.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte

Bob Stuart | The (Waynesboro) News Virginian

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

VERONA -- Sixth District Rep. Bob Goodlatte's past town hall meetings attracted a small crowd of mostly senior citizens. But on Monday night at the Augusta County Government Center, an overflow crowd jammed the meeting room. The crowd heard the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee discuss immigration reform and other issues.

Immigration was the hot topic. Pro-immigration reform organizations such as Virginia Organizing turned out in large numbers to lobby Goodlatte, R-Roanoke County, on his immigration stance.

Virginia Organizing wants the immigration legislation passed two months ago by the U.S. Senate to be passed in the House. Goodlatte does not support the Senate bill, saying it lacks the proper enforcement tools and provides a too simple path to citizenship. He said the House will not consider the Senate legislation.

"It is not a bill I can support. That bill gives legal status to people not lawfully here before the enforcement is put in,'' Goodlatte said. He said the Senate bill fails to address the role of enforcement and the involvement of state and local law enforcement, and gives a special path to citizenship to people who entered the country illegally.

Connie Birch, a Staunton resident and member of Virginia Organizing, said the Senate bill "is as good as we can get. It would be good if the House passed it."

Goodlatte said giving citizenship before securing the border would be repeating a mistake of federal immigration legislation passed in 1986.

"Unless we have new mechanisms to make sure the laws are being enforced," Goodlatte qualified.

On a different subject, Goodlatte said Congress is still looking at the legality of the National Security Agency gathering millions of phone records of Americans.

The NSA has said the practice can help in identifying terrorists. The Judiciary Committee has organized classified briefings for members of Congress on the NSA activities and a public hearing on the NSA practices.

When Congress returns, Goodlatte said more hearings will be held to gather further information about how successful the NSA activities have been and how many terrorists have been identified.

Saturday, September 14, 2013