Rand Paul, on Fox News Sunday, argued that the crux of the immigration plan he proposed this week is stronger border security. “Conservatives have always wanted border security before we have immigration reform,” Paul said. “The amendment that I will add to the bipartisan plan will ensure that there is border security and that Congress gets to vote on that border security every year in order for it to go forward.”
He emphasized the importance of allowing Congress, as opposed to the commission of border-state officials proposed by the bipartisan gang of eight, to legislate and vote on border-security criteria. ”You’re only going to get the conservatives, particularly a Republican House, to pass immigration reform, if we as conservatives are reassured that the border is controlled and that we get to vote on whether the border is controlled.”
The Kentucky senator’s immigration-reform proposal, set forth in a speech to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, rejected a path to citizenship and called for the establishment of a “middle ground” between amnesty and deportation, through which illegal immigrants could become legal after a “probationary period.”