The immigration reform effort within the House of Representatives is gaining momentum, Florida Republican Mario Diaz-Balart claims. Diaz-Balart was interviewed by Roll Call and says that Republican support is growing for a bipartisan immigration reform effort; he also says he thinks that something positive will happen prior to the August recess.
“Every day I’m getting more and more Republicans – conservatives – who are frankly approaching me saying: ‘How do we move forward?’ I feel very very confident that a majority – a strong majority – of Republicans want to finally tackle this system that everyone understands is broken – with some caveats,” Diaz-Balart told CQ Roll Call. “Republicans are insisting that we take this step-by-step.”
Diaz-Balert has been highly optimistic about the chances for legislative immigration reform after the issue first gained high priority following the Republican party’s crushing defeat at the 2012 presidential election; nonetheless, his remarks are being seen as significant given that the Capitol has lately been abuzz with talks about serious discussions on reform taking place behind closed doors. Diaz-Balart says that he and other reform advocates have been undeterred by their lack of success so far or by the rhetoric regarding amnesty for undocumented immigrants from House majority leader Eric Cantor.
Diaz-Balart says that he has long since stopped reacting to such things and that he and others have simply been doing their best to try to draft legislation that will fix the broken immigration system.