By Julia Preston | The New York Times
As the Republican-controlled House of Representatives wrapped up its work for the year on Thursday with no progress on immigration, leaders from both parties said they would return to the issue early in the new year.
Representative Robert W. Goodlatte, Republican of Virginia and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said at a hearing that immigration would be a “top priority” in 2014. He said the House would advance a series of bills to strengthen enforcement, improve the legal immigration process and find “the appropriate legal status for those who are not here lawfully today.”
Despite the biting chill, the House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi of California, surrounded herself on the steps of the Capitol with dozens of Democratic lawmakers and with advocates who had been fasting in a tent on the National Mall to push the House to vote on an immigration bill.