Republican Bob Goodlatte has said for a long time that the 11 million undocumented immigrants who are currently living in the United States should never be given a special pathway to citizenship, but for the very first time he now appears to be changing his tune and acknowledging that some form of path should be provided.
Goodlatte, who has a fair degree of influence over the debate on immigration reform due to the fact that he is the House Judiciary Committee chairman, now says that he can see a plan that would allow temporary legal status to be given to adult undocumented immigrants, and then let them put in applications for a green card and citizenship at a later date.
“To create a new category for people who came in here illegally does not sit well with a great many Americans,” Goodlatte notes. “I and other members are open-minded to the idea that they should have a way to come out of the shadows, to be able to work, to have their own businesses, to pay their taxes, to travel back and forth to their home country and elsewhere.”
Goodlatte added that once that status had been attained they could then put in an application for legal permanent residence, and even US citizenship eventually, via avenues that are currently already available to foreigners such as being sponsored by a US employer, marrying a US citizen or having a relative who is a US citizen petition for them.
