Rep. Bob Goodlatte, whose immigration bill failed to pass the House last week, said Sunday there was still a great deal of progress made toward coming to a solution for handling the situation.
"It wasn't expected to do as well as it did," the Virginia Republican told Fox News' Maria Bartiromo on "Sunday Morning Futures" about his bill. "[We were] 20 votes short of what was needed. That actually caused a lot of members in a conference we held shortly after that vote to say hey, if you took some from that bill and added them to the new bill, maybe we have something we could get 218 votes for and pass."
Goodlatte said work has continued this weekend to come up with new ideas that are now being vetted.
"It's my hope that these will lead us to take up that second bill, with an amendment that will add some important provisions," Goodlatte said. "We'll have the opportunity. It's very important we address the crisis at the border."
Addressing the separation of children from their parents is just part of a bill that must be worked out, said Goodlatte. President Donald Trump last week issued an executive order to stop the separations while continuing the zero-tolerance policy for people who illegally cross the border into the United States.
"This bill does address allowing them with their parents," said Goodlatte of the new bill that will come up for a vote this week. "The number of people at the borders, the highest it's been [during] the Trump administration."
Meanwhile, the asylum program is important, but being "abused by human smugglers and lawyers advising people," Goodlatte said. "They will have to put you out into the countryside because they don't have the space to hold all of these people. It's a serious problem that needs to be addressed now."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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