Four amendments on immigration may have gone down on Thursday, but that does not mean immigration reform is dead on arrival, Rep. Bob Goodlatte said Friday.
"The president ending the DACA [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] program because it was unconstitutional and saying to Congress 'fix it' created an opportunity to put this issue on the front burner, and it is important that it stay there," the Virginia Republican told Fox News' "America's Newsroom."
Goodlatte added that the House Republican leadership "strongly agrees" with that stance, and that members of his party are working hard to pass legislation.
"One advantage we have in the House is that it only requires a majority of the House," he said.
However, the House plan will be more conservative than what is being considered in the Senate, show co-host Bill Hemmer pointed out, but Goodlatte said the House plan is "also more generous."
"It addresses a major problem that one of the largest sectors of our economy has, agriculture in terms of workers, said Goodlatte. "We create a new guest worker program that is building a lot of excitement and support."
The pending House bill, he noted, addresses President Donald Trump's concerns about DACA, securing the border, and ending chain migration and the Visa lottery.
"It also has e-verify, which is popular with the public," said Goodlatte. "In most polls, I see support for e-verify and it includes a guest worker program that is necessary when you do e-verify. We're building support and hope to bring it to the floor soon."
He added that a "whip check" was performed, and it was positive.
"We're now working on the people who said they were undecided, to make sure that we have the necessary support, and we're prepared to make some more tweaks to the bill if necessary," said Goodlatte.