Diaz-Balart: Pelosi Obstacle to Immigration Reform

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida says Rep. Nancy Pelosi is the obstacle to passing comprehensive immigration reform in the House of Representatives, as Congressmen prepare for immigration reform debate to begin Tuesday.

The Florida Republican, who is one of the seven lawmakers in the House who are working toward an agreement, explained while appearing on MSNBC Monday that they had reached a bipartisan agreement twice to have it fail due to healthcare related issues.

However, the problem didn't come from the Democrats who are part of the negotiations, but from the Democratic leadership.

"We had an agreement once. And then, unfortunately -- and I think it's coming from the Democratic leadership and not from the group that I'm negotiating with . . . I think it's coming from Nancy Pelosi," Diaz-Balart said.

"On a second occasion, we had to reopen the same issue . . . We had already reached an agreement on a second time. And, again, I think the problem that we're running into is Nancy Pelosi," he added. "I'm not quite sure if she wants a bill."

According to The Hill , Pelosi denies that Democrats are trying to stop an deal on immigration for political advantage among Latinos.

"Anybody who would say that I would rather have the issue than the bill, just doesn't know what they're taking about," Pelosi told reporters Thursday. "This is something that is so glorious for our country that we will have a bill that many of us are willing to swallow -- some things that we don't like about the bill."

Pelosi promised in May that immigration reform would not include health care benefits for illegal immigrants, however Diaz-Balart said that the only problem they're running into is the issue of health care.

"The issue that we've had is only one. We've only had one outstanding issue which is the health care issue," he said.

"Should the taxpayer be stuck with the bill over the health care of 11 million people? Or should those folks who are going to be legalized, earn legalization, should they be responsible for their health care bill? That's the issue we haven't solved yet. I think once we do that we'll have bipartisan proposal," Diaz-Balart added.