Speaker Ryan: 2016 Agenda Excludes Immigration Limitations

Breitbart News reports on Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo’s interview with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., during which he admitted immigration limitations are not part of the 2016 Republican job-centric “pro-growth” agenda. “We’re not going to be talking about visa caps in our agenda,” Ryan said. This runs contrary to recent Pew polling which found that 67 percent of Republican voters want immigration reduced while only seven percent want more.

Bartiromo asked Ryan if he would “support legislation to cap the number of immigrants and green cards issued,”’ given that voters think one million green cards per year is too many. Ryan said, “we’re not going to put immigration reform, other than securing the border, in our national security agenda. We think a key component of national security is actually securing the border. And so that will be a component of that, but what you’re asking is something different than that.”

Bartiromo pressed Ryan, noting that voters and even candidates are discussing the excessive number of green cards and their impact on American workers. She said, “Americans do not have the jobs that they need to have partly because you’ve got foreigners coming in taking their jobs. So that’s the central issue really that I’m asking you. Do we want to keep open borders the way we have, or do we want to have some level of caps? So again, would you propose legislation that lowers the number of green cards issued?”

Ryan responded, “Look, I’m not going to get into the detail of what caps– I think we should have a cap on green cards, of course. And I think we should change the way we give green cards so that we have economic based visas…We’re going to be offering a bold specific pro-growth agenda, to grow this economy, get people from welfare to work. And make sure that we have a secure country, so that’s why we’re not going to be talking about visa caps in our agenda and promising what we’re going to do if we have a Republican President. We’re going to be talking about how to grow the economy, how to get people from welfare to work, and secure the border, secure this country.”

Read more in Breitbart News and watch the interview video.