California Reps. David Valadao and Jeff Denham are joining House Republican colleagues in pushing Speaker Paul D. Ryan to find a legislative fix before the end of the year for the legal status of people brought to the country illegally as children.

Virginia Rep. Scott Taylor and Washington Rep. Dan Newhouse are the lead writers of a letter to Ryan that stresses that the signers support border enforcement and fixing a “broken” immigration system, “but in this moment, we must address the urgent matter before us in a balanced approach that does not harm valuable sectors of our economy nor the lives of these hard-working young people.”

I know we have until March, but why not just get it done?” Valadao (R-Hanford) said in an interview.



Denham (R-Turlock) said in an interview he’s working to get as many Republican colleagues to sign the letter as he can.

“I want to send a very clear message to the speaker,” Denham said. “We want to show the speaker there are a large number of votes there...We shouldn’t wait another week or another month or [until] a deadline to pass a bill that has bipartisan support.”

Not acting is creating understandable uncertainty and anxiety amongst immigrant communities,” reads an early draft of the letter, obtained Friday by The Times. “While we firmly believe Congress must work to address other issues within our broken immigration system, it is imperative that Republicans and Democrats come together to solve this problem now and not wait until next year. … Reaching across the aisle to protect DACA recipients before the holidays is the right thing to do.


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