Pelosi: Boehner Said Immigration Principles Will Be Acceptable to Democrats
In a press conference yesterday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said House Speaker John Boehner is making a “good-faith effort” to develop immigration principle which, the Speaker said, should be acceptable to most if not all Democrats.
"I'm assured by the speaker that [the principles] will be good and acceptable to probably all of us, and I hope that is the case," said Pelosi. “I don’t know the form they will take. I think they’re changing it and instead of saying principles, its standards and we’ll see what that is. But I believe it is a good-faith effort to find common ground and we look forward to seeing what they are.”
On the question of whether Democrats might reject Boehner’s principles outright if they’re unacceptable, Pelosi said, "Any proposal is a starter. The starter is that's not where we're going to go."
Pelosi also reiterated the Democrats’ demand that citizenship be a part of any deal. "In our caucus, there has to be a path to citizenship. To talk about legalization is to say that America is not the country we think we are. They wouldn't even be second-class citizens, because they wouldn't be citizens. They'd be second-class residents of our country. I just can't subscribe to that, and that's not where our caucus is."
However, Pelosi indicated an openness to negotiating how and when illegal aliens could achieve citizenship. "When we talk about a path to citizenship, it doesn't say you're instantly a citizen, all of you," she said. "No, there are hurdles to get over. The path is, in some ways, an arduous one."
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