Ryan on Immigration: Deportations Stop When Reform Begins

• Secure the border because, he said, drug cartels are bringing drugs across and into our schools;
• Enforce immigration laws because it's not really been done before, creating a distrust in the system;
• Encourage legal immigration so there will be enough workers to fill the holes left by 10,000 baby boomers retiring every day; and
• Give undocumented residents the opportunity to "get right with the law," in part, to eliminate the fear of deportation by putting them on a kind of probation. After that time expires, if someone has obeyed laws, kept a job, and paid a fine and taxes, that person can apply for a green card, and, eventually, citizenship.

Deportation on the minds of most

The first resident to ask Ryan a question is undocumented, and she had 12 members of the audience stand with her to represent families torn apart by deportation. She wanted to know what he will do to put an end to deportation. 

"That's what I'm working for," he said. "Getting right with the law means serving a term of probation so there wouldn't be any deportation."

Ryan also said that after the probationary period - assuming they remain law-abiding in all other ways - people can get a legal work permit that can be renewed multiples times so, among other things, they can travel in and out of the U.S. The card would also lead to a green card and, ultimately, citizenship if that's what the individual chooses.

"We're talking a 15-year process," he added. "This is not amnesty, and it keeps families together."

The topic of deportation came up multiple times, underscoring Ryan's statement that deportation is often an anxiety that can push people further into the shadows.

Why five bills are better than one

Ryan said at least five different bills that address his four points could hit the House floor in October. Several members of the audience asked why he doesn't support the Senate bill. 

He said he can't support the Senate bill because it's too unwieldy, for one, at 1,000 pages, and no one really knows what's in it.

"Passing legislation in stages is best because no one reads 1,000 page bills," he noted. "We've been doing that and how well has that worked?"

But Ryan also stressed that the first step is building a consensus around the four broader points he's outlined before stepping deeper into the details.

"It's important to get a consensus among House Republicans so we can relieve the worry about deportation," he said. "Then we give undocumented workers the opportunity to get right with the law."

After the congressman conducted his May listening session, a spokesperson for Voces de la Frontera expressed concern about the employment requirement in Ryan's proposal since whether or not an employee keeps a job is often beyond their control.

After the congressman's session, Voces Executive Director Christine Neumann-Ortiz reiterated the group's concern:

"We applaud Congressman Ryan’s desire to 'get it right,', but getting it right means that we need to seriously challenge the idea of creating conditions that not every worker can meet, and the risk that it will push people out of legal status in the future." 

Still, Ryan said he wouldn't get into specifics about his plan until he had other members of the House GOP at the table with him. 

"These are the details that get hammered out in legislation so I'm not going to go into the fine particulates," he said. "What I'm trying to do is show where there's a broad consensus and how to get immigration reform that works. All these specifics ... that's something we're going to have to figure out."