While MSNBC host Rachel Maddow admitted you couldn’t pick Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) out of a lineup, she identified him on Tuesday as the man responsible for stymying the “big kahuna” of President Barack Obama’s second term in immigration reform.

“This seems like a process story and it’s not getting much press because he’s not that famous,” Maddow said of Goodlatte, chair of the House Judiciary Committee and thus the gatekeeper for any immigration bills. “But he’s the head of the committee who has to make that happen. And he’s saying no. And this is a huge moment on a huge issue — arguably the hugest issue in Washington for four years. And the Republicans are flat-out saying, ‘Nope, don’t care, we aren’t gonna do it.'”

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Maddow pointed out that Goodlatte’s stated opposition to what he called “a special pathway to citizenship” for the country’s 11 million undocumented immigrants during a town hall meeting on Monday, vowing that the House would not take up the Senate bill on the issue passed in June 2013.

While he referenced working on legislation that would help younger immigrants — commonly known as Dreamers, after the DREAM Act — Goodlatte told his audience that, “I also understand how wrong it is for a family to take a small child across the desert, through dangerous tunnels, in the backs of tractor-trailers, where some of them suffocate. I don’t want to see it happen again.”

Unless something changes radically, Maddow said, Goodlatte’s stance will kill any changes on immigration policy for the foreseeable future.

“On their heads will fall the political consequences, probably for a generation,” she said.

Watch Maddow reveal how Goodlatte is gumming up the immigration works, as aired on MSNBC, below.

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