GOP civil war takes immigration reform hostage

>> let's get right to our panel now. krystal ball is my colleague and the co-host of "the cycle" and lili gil valletta is founder of excel alliance. congratulations on your baby which you have just had. thank you for coming back and joining us. we were told that immigration was something that republicans and democrats could agree on after the election because of what happened at the election. enter the chair of the house judiciary committee who will have a good say on this and bob goodlatte says there's no need for a path to citizenship.

>> now there is no need. we were just talking about it before the show. there is no clear path to citizenship, and the problem we have is that there are so many different versions of immigrants that we try to corner them all with one big label as if they're all one big issue that it's the same to be addressed in one way when it's not. the biggest issue here is we keep mixing and missing the point that there's an economic impact when we address immigration. you cannot ignore it because it is impacting the competitiveness of our country altogether.

>> krystal , a recent bloomberg poll shows a clear majority want a path to citizenship. less than a quarter of the country say they don't want a path to citizenship. isn't this somewhat similar to what's happened with republicans and the overall management of the economy? as soon as the polling suts a balanced approach, they ignore the polling and ignore what americans want and pursue a path that satisfies their base. same with immigration. the people want something like this, so guess what? we'll pander to our base.

>> 100%. and not only are they ignoring what the people want, they are ignoring the facts and realities of the current day. the gop has a simple choice. they can either choose to engage with facts, with evidence and try to come up with solutions or they can engage in this sort of dell lugs that representative goodlatte is engaging in. no one who is living in this country thinks that that is real. so if you are --

>> there are 11 million people who are undocumented in this nation.

>> that's exactly right. so what are you going to do about that? if you're not for a path to citizenship, what is your alternative? let's spell it out. are you going to deport everyone? what's that going to cost.

>> mr. goodlatte says put your fingers in your ears and hope for the best.

>> this is what is contradicting because we hear that we want to bring new tax revenues, right? and that we want to balance the economy, and it's like we're having two conversations that are separate when they're really interrelated. if we address this legal path to citizenship which rubio has called it, we will have new taxpayers and do it the right way. there is dreamers that are estimated to generate $329 billion in revenue for the country if we address those 2 million students, but you can't just separate it and think that one doesn't interrelate with the other.

>> we or rather john mccain met the 23% on tuesday. you heard a little in "top lines." let's listen to a bit more.

>> why didn't the army go down there and stop them? because the only thing that stops them i'm afraid to say and it's too damn bad, but is a gun. why bring a 30 million --

>> they're here.

>> cut off their welfare and all their stuff and they'll go back.

>> krystal , senator mccain has nothing to do with those kind of comments, but don't you think the echo chamber of certain media, isn't that generating this kind of ferment which stops us from ever getting to a point of resolution?

>> absolutely. and republicans have used this issue to stoke fear and drive turnout in election after election. even in districts where there are very few immigrants really --

>> right.

>> majority white district, there's very little immigration, but they still use it as this wedge issue to stoke fear and drive people to the polls, and it has worked is the problem. now when they're trying to turn around, now when they're trying to say, no, we're open to all people, we want to embrace our latino brothers and sisters , they have created this monster that they cannot just undo with a few words from marco rubio .

>> krystal is right, isn't she, that this kind of rhetoric in the med.

>> has not been helpful.

>> yes, the rhetoric of a few is impacting the good intentions of so you powerful forces in the gop who may want to change but there's too much emotional baggage. there is too many extremists, nationalistic pride, that it's almost like it's making us forget we are an immigrant nation and we are very far from the five-hour and 29-question process that ellis island used to be, and here we are now so proud talking about our grandparents, they came legally, yet today we're not embracing a legal way for new grandparents to come through. it's just -- it makes no sense. and something needs to happen with that. core, base, make some change, put proposals that move forward this joint and bipartisan agenda and forget the nonsense.

>> lili gil valletta, krystal ball, thank you for joining us.