WASHINGTON, March 19 (Xinhua) -- U.S. House Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday applauded the current work of a bipartisan group in the Congress on immigration overhaul, calling it "a pretty responsible solution."
The secretive group, consisting of four Republicans and four Democrats, have been working on a comprehensive immigration reform plan, including a most controversial part to provide 11 million illegal immigrants with an earned pathway to citizenship.
Boehner, who had never endorsed the negotiation previously, voiced support for the group's plan at this time. "There's a lot of issues here that have to be dealt with," he said. "I think what the bipartisan group came up, frankly, is a pretty responsible solution."
But he deflected the question about a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants in the plan, and stressed that the negotiation was just "the beginning of the process."
"There's a lot of education that needs to be done, because more than half of our members have never dealt with the issue of immigration reform, both on the legal side and on the illegal side, " he said at a press conference.
|
