Representative Joaquin Castro and his brother Julian Castro, the HUD secretary, say they do not believe that there is any chance of immigration reform being passed by the House of Representatives until at least 2016. The comments were made yesterday at the Lessons from Leaders event staged by POLITICO at the Bank of America building in Washington DC.
“If you gave me an under-over, 50-50, whether I think they’re going to pass a major overhaul of the immigration system, I would say no, I don’t think they’re going to do that by 2016,” Joaquin declared of Republicans in the House of Representatives. The brothers called on Republican party members in both the House and the Senate to start taking more of a lead when it comes to the issue.
“Ideally you would have the Republican Congress now, as Republicans control both chambers, pass their own bill with respect to immigration and then try to come to some agreement with the president,” Joaquin declared, adding that it was remarkable that the Senate bill from 2013 had not even been put to vote by House speaker John Boehner and that legislation of any kind relating to the matter had still not been drafted by the House.
Julian Castro, who has previously thrown his weight behind President Obama’s decision to enact his own form of immigration reform and protect millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation through the use of his executive authority, agreed with his brother and said that they were both trying to remain optimistic about Congress enacting comprehensive reform.