The immigration reform debate moves to the U.S. House of Representative, and Florida’s Congressional delegation is split on supporting Senator Rubio’s recently passed Senate “Gang of 8” immigration bill,

While all of Florida’s Democrat members of Congress will most likely support a Senate-like immigration bill, it seems as if the House Republicans will stand firm on a border security first approach to immigration reform, as the Senate bill calls for a pathway to citizenship before the border is secured.

“We need to make sure that those people here for that purpose are given the opportunity to be here and then return home. They’re not here for citizenship…They don’t want to be here for citizenship.” Rep. Dennis Ross (Shark Tank)
Representatives  Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart, longtime supporters of a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, will most likely side with the Democrats, while Representatives, Bill Posey, Ron DeSantis, Trey Radel, Ted Yoho, Tom Rooney, Dennis Ross, Jeff Miller, and a few others, will look to support a bill that mandates the border be secured first, before a pathway to citizenship for anyone is considered.

“Securing our border must be the top priority,” said Rep. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge. “The American people were promised border security as a part of the 1986 amnesty legislation, in the aftermath of (Sept. 11) and again in 2006 legislation. Washington has a 27-year record of broken promises about border security…“After Washington fulfills the promise of border security made 27 years ago, then we can consider other immigration-related issues,” he said. “Securing our borders is important for national security reasons, economic reasons, and because of drug trafficking and public safety.”-Rep. Bill Posey (Florida Today)