House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has urged President Barack Obama to make a deal on immigration, especially amnesty reform for children of illegal immigrants.
But during an interview with
CBS 6 in Virginia, Cantor warned Obama that his "my highway or the highway" approach to reform would not lead to legislation being passed during his tenure.
"I have told the president, there are some things we can work on together," said
Cantor, who is facing a challenge from tea party candidate Dave Brat, an economics professor, in Tuesday’s GOP primary in Virginia.
Referring to a possible amnesty deal for millions of undocumented children, he added, "We can work on the border security bill together, we can work on something like the kids.
"So far, the president has just insisted that it’s all or nothing, [it is] my way or the highway. That’s not going to happen."
Brat, who teaches at Randolph-Macon College near Richmond, Virginia, has slammed Cantor’s immigration reform stance during the campaign.
"Eric Cantor is saying we should bring more folks into the country, increase the labor supply — and by doing so, lower wage rates for the working person," Brat said, according to Reuters. "His policies make no sense."
According to
The Daily Caller, the Rev. Richard Ryscavage, a member of the new White House panel on immigration, says Obama is willing to hammer out an immigration package with House Republicans.
Ryscavage, a Jesuit priest and director of Fairfield University’s Center for Faith and Public Life, said a compromise is what the White House thinks is "going to happen, so they’re [publicly] asking for a lot of stuff that privately they don’t think they’re going to get" to reach a deal.
And while referring to the administration’s domestic policy director Cecilia Munoz, Ryscavage said, "Cecilia even knows that" the White House must reach an agreement with the GOP for any legislation to pass.
Although Cantor has attacked the comprehensive immigration reform bill passed by the Senate last year, the Virginia Republican supported parts of the bill, such as proposals that kids would be allowed to stay in the United States and allowing companies to hire foreign workers, The Daily Caller said.
But before he’s willing to make a deal with Obama, Cantor said that the president must show that he’s willing to enforce immigration laws and strop using executive orders to bypass Congress.
"The president has got to go and demonstrate that he’s willing to rebuild the trust with the American people after what he has and his administration have demonstrated on all kinds of things, where unilateral moves, executive orders have been signed without regard to the intent of the law passed by Congress," Cantor said.
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