CO - Rep. Cory Gardner: No immigration amnesty
Posted: 08/06/2013 04:00:00 PM MDT
By Jenni Grubbs
The Fort Morgan Times
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Congressman Cory Gardner, R-Colo., talks about federal spending during his town meeting Monday in Fort Morgan. Gardner discussed many hot-button topics and answered lots of questions from his Morgan County constituents. (Jenni Grubbs / Fort Morgan Times)
FORT MORGAN —— Congressman Cory Gardner fielded many questions from Morgan County residents about immigration during his town meeting Monday in Fort Morgan without definite answers, but he made one thing quite clear.
He does not support any kind of amnesty process where people in the United States illegally would be granted citizeship, such as what happened in the 1980s.
"We need reform," Garnder said, but he said the country should not have an automatic path to citizenship for those here illegally.
But the big question was what that reform would look like, he said.
"I'm committed to an immigration reform package that first looks at border security, then looks at what to do with the 11 million undocumented people who are here," the Republican congressman said.
He said that there are four bill currently under consideration in the U.S. House of Representatives.
They would deal with the immigration issue in "pieces," which Gardner said was the right approach to take on the touchy subject.
Those pieces would include: visas for agricultural workers; visas for people with science, math and technology specialties; strengthening the federal E-Verify system for employers to check someone's citizen or immigration status; and addressing border security concerns.
"Those are the first four pieces," Gardner said. "I think it's important we do this right."
By comparison, the U.S. Senate has one big bill to try to tackle all of immigration, he said, with which he does not agree.
Gardner pointed out that agriculture "is dependent upon these workers," and that there were families that had been split and wanted to be together.
"I believe we can do it," he said. "It just takes time."
One of the audience questions was about families that had been split up because of immigration statuses.
"We need to have immigration reform that is meaningful," Gardner answered. "It's important to keep families together" where possible.
He said that those families were not being forgotten, but that Congress first needs to address border security and enforcement.
Gardner also told another questioner that he supported immigration reform "for all of us."
He said that in order for it to work, it would have to be something that applied to everyone.
"I don't think you can cherry-pick immigration reform, or say it's only for this industry," he said.
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