Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Amodei: Politics impedes solving immigration problem

Click to enlarge photo

Rep. Mark Amodei

U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei said Congress does nothing to solve the immigration problem because members — both Republicans and Democrats — care primarily about allegiance to their political parties.

“There are answers for immigration, although many of them require a bit of wrestling like Dreamers, ag reform and visa reform,” Amodei, R-Nev., told host Sam Shad on "Nevada Newsmakers." “There are answers for that, but both sides are so entrenched in their political security blankets that they won’t do anything.”

Amodei, who represents Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District, said some Republicans also worry about what will be said on Fox News.

Many other national issues could be solved if Congress would tackle immigration, Amodei said.

“You talk about school systems, Social Security. What about the service industry, what about those people that are skilled folks?” he said. “We continue to play politics with it, and it is absolutely shameful.”

Immigration has been a great failure of Congress for at least a decade, he said.

“Let’s talk first about whose responsibility it is,” he said. “It is Congress’ responsibility. Congress has refused to act, for one reason or another, for at least the last 10 years. The last time something was done was 35 years ago, during the Reagan administration. So I can understand any president” being frustrated.