U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas Donohue said Monday that the Republican Party “should not bother to run a candidate” in the 2016 presidential election unless Congress can pass immigration reform this year. During an event on the economy and infrastructure, Donohue argued that it was necessary for the House to “do something rational” and that the Chamber of Commerce would “put a lot more” heat on Congressional members who are resistant to the idea of reform, Politico first reported.
When asked by a moderator what he deemed a “must pass bill … that’s crucial for the future of the U.S. economy,” Donohue insisted on passing immigration reform:
We’ll be absolutely crazy if we don’t take advantage of having passed an immigration bill out of the Senate. Going back and doing it again might be harder and do something rational in the House and put it together and let’s get the three or four things we really need there. And we’ve got a lot of heat on that and we’re going to put a lot more.
[…] If the Republicans don’t do it, they shouldn’t bother to run a candidate in 2016. I mean, think about that. Think about who the voters are.
Donohue’s comments prompted some audience members to say, ” Wow. Wow!” while the moderator told people to tweet the comments. He went on to say that without immigration reform, the country would lose immigrants who trained at the “best universities in the world” and instead “send the work to where people are.” He also joked that if the “bottom level of workers” left the country, Americans would have to be the ones to pick up their mother-in-laws from the nursing home.
Read the full story at Think Progress.
