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GOP Majority Leader Says Immigration Reform is 'Dead' For 2014
US Border patrol agents keep watch outside the entrance to the US Border Patrol facility in Murrieta during an anti-immigration protest in Murrieta, California, on July 7, 2014. Protestors are opposing the arrival of buses carrying undocumented women and children migrants for processing at the Murrieta Border Patrol Station. Deportations of illegal migrants crossing the US border are being stepped up, a top Obama administration official said on Sunday, defending the White House's handling of a flood of undocumented children. AFP PHOTO / Robyn Beck ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images

GOP Majority Leader Says Immigration Reform is 'Dead' For 2014

Amid border crisis, Kevin McCarthy says that immigration reform is dead on arrival for 2014.

In an interview with TheBlaze, newly-elected GOP House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said that immigration reform is over for 2014.

McCarthy, the successor to Eric Cantor who was ousted in a GOP primary last month over his push for immigration reform, suggested that any immigration bill would be dead on arrival in the wake of the Obama administration's man-made border crisis.

Congressman McCarthy (Cali.) not only confirmed the death of immigration reform this election cycle but added, "The only thing that could happen is [legislation] on securing the border. That's the only thing I see happening."

House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy of Calif., arrives for GOP leadership elections, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, June 19, 2014. House Republicans elected McCarthy as majority leader, party's No. 2 post. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy of Calif., arrives for GOP leadership elections, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, June 19, 2014. House Republicans elected McCarthy as majority leader, party's No. 2 post. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

McCarthy, who has historically supported a "path" that would allow undocumented immigrants to be able to work and pay taxes in the United States, and whose own district is 35 percent Latino (compared to Cantor's district at 2 percent) made the prediction even as he is being aggressively protested by pro-amnesty activists in his own backyard.

The Majority Leader-elect, who will be officially sworn in as GOP Majority Leader on July 31, said he has not only been the subject of protests at his district office in the border state of California but also at his personal home where his wife, Judy, and their daughter, a minor, reside while he is in session with Congress in Washington, D.C.

"They've even been to my house," said McCarthy. "They bring busloads [of people] and they pound on the door."

Last November, McCarthy talked with angry immigration reform activists when they camped out in his office. He came in late at night over a holiday weekend to address their concerns but mostly, he listened -- a trademark of McCarthy's personality which his inner circle of colleagues credit for his meteoric rise to the national stage.

Now, McCarthy and others think it's high time the Obama administration do the listening.

"What's happening now is out of control," said Congressman McCarthy.

US Border patrol agents keep watch outside the entrance to the US Border Patrol facility in Murrieta during an anti-immigration protest in Murrieta, California, on July 7, 2014. Protestors are opposing the arrival of buses carrying undocumented women and children migrants for processing at the Murrieta Border Patrol Station. Deportations of illegal migrants crossing the US border are being stepped up, a top Obama administration official said on Sunday, defending the White House's handling of a flood of undocumented children. AFP PHOTO / Robyn Beck ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images US Border patrol agents keep watch outside the entrance to the US Border Patrol facility in Murrieta during an anti-immigration protest in Murrieta, California, on July 7, 2014. Protestors are opposing the arrival of buses carrying undocumented women and children migrants for processing at the Murrieta Border Patrol Station. Deportations of illegal migrants crossing the US border are being stepped up, a top Obama administration official said on Sunday, defending the White House's handling of a flood of undocumented children. AFP PHOTO / Robyn Beck

When asked what he would do if he were President Barack Obama, Congressman McCarthy outlined multiple solutions including a public information campaign that could run in border countries and be targeted at parents who might be tempted to send their children to the United States. McCarthy said the parents need to know they will be "putting children in harm's way."

He also suggested the administration roll back radical restrictions placed on Border Patrol agents in locations such as Arizona. Agents just west of Tucson are prohibited from patrolling the border in motor vehicles in order to protect a two-inch pupfish in a pond inside the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, a park that is within feet of the U.S.-Mexican border.

Obama's Department of the Interior and the National Park Service require that Border Patrol agents surveil the area on foot or on horseback (so long as the horses are fed with weed-free feed so that their feces do not disrupt the ecosystem in the park).

The problem for border security? Illegal immigrants don't respect the administration's radical environmental policies and in fact, are taking full advantage of the national park loophole in the 4.3 million acres of wilderness areas along the border.

Photo Credit: Photo Credit: Getty Images

As for other immediate solutions, McCarthy suggested that President Obama should send the vice president as part of an envoy to Mexico to make "a very public statement" from the U.S. He added that the U.S. government ought to be working with the Mexican government to find out exactly who may be aiding and abetting human traffickers along the border.

As for future talk of immigration reform, McCarthy insisted, "You have to secure the border first, before you talk any immigration reform. That's been my position from day one."

For now, it seems the flood of illegal immigrants crossing the border has backfired on the Obama administration. According to McCarthy, the second most powerful person in the House of Representatives, the push for immigration reform has been stopped in its tracks and that at least is the silver lining to a border crisis cloud that now hangs over America.

Jennifer Kerns is a branded contributor to TheBlaze and other publications where she writes about the 2nd Amendment, the future of the GOP, limited government battles, religious liberty and other political hot topics.

TheBlaze contributor channel supports an open discourse on a range of views. The opinions expressed in this channel are solely those of each individual author.

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