As the House prepares to vote on immigration bills Thursday, Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas lobbied for his legislation, saying it would detain and remove illegal immigrants after they’ve crossed the border.
McCaul is sponsoring the legislation with fellow GOP House member Bob Goodlatte of Virginia and said it would provide a “permanent fix” to the problem of illegal immigration. (RELATED: American Airlines Weighs In On Illegal Immigration Debate)
“What we need to do is close the legal loopholes and provide a legal but permanent fix. And that’s what the Goodlatte/McCaul bill does,” McCaul told “Fox & Friends” Thursday. “We have a permanent fix, so that when they come in the country, they’re detained and removed … The president says he is a thousand percent behind this bill.”
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McCaul also said he wants Congress to begin treating refugees equally, as opposed to giving preference to one country over another.
“If you come from Mexico, you are detained and removed from the country. If you come from central America, you’re treated differently,” McCaul concluded. “Our bill treats them the same. So we detain — we don’t split the family up like is currently done. We keep the family together and then we remove them from the country. Now, they could have an asylum claim, but we changed that standard so it’s more difficult than just saying the magic words, credible fear of persecution.”
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