Ryan to Talk Immigration with Hispanic Community

As he promised earlier this spring, Congressman Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, is coming to Racine to talk with members of the Hispanic Community about immigration reform.

Ryan will meet with residents at St. Patrick's Church, 1111 Douglas Avenue, from 12 to 1:30 p.m. Friday. The session is expected to be bilingual so there will be interpreters present.

"This meeting follows a round of 8 town halls that Congressman Ryan did in April and May throughout the 1st Congressional District and comes as the House of Representatives is considering among other issues, how best to reform our broken immigration system," said Kevin Siefert, spokesperson for Ryan.

During his Racine listening session in May, Ryan promised to host a bilingual listening session with Latinos specifically to discuss immigration reform.

Congressional Republicans are divided on how to deal with the controversial issue. Some Republicans, like Ryan, want to make it possible for illegal immigrants to eventually become citizens. Other Republicans oppose any such effort as "amnesty" for those who are here illegally.

Ryan pointed out recently that the current immigration system is, essentially, an amnesty program, according to a story from the Janesville Gazette.

He also told reporters that getting comprehensive - and realistic - immigration reform done now will help employers here in the 1st District as well as schools and possibly even curb the heroin epidemic.

“We do not have good control of our border, and those drugs are coming into our schools,” he is quoted as saying.

While much has been made of the Republicans' efforts to attract more Hispanic voters, Ryan told Patch in May that he doesn't look at voters as a particular group — and that his party shouldn't get into that way of thinking, either.

"I don't look at this as we need to do a better job of playing identity politics," Ryan said. "I just think we need to do a better job of doing a good job. I think the immigration system is broken for a lot of reasons, and I want to fix it because it's broken, and not for any political reason."