Conservative members of Congress gathered for a six-hour press conference last week outside of the Capitol before a large crowd to speak out against granting any “amnesty” to illegal immigrants before the nation’s borders are secure.

“If we see them pass amnesty, then it’s amnesty forever and you can never restore the rule of law again at least with regard to immigration – that’s the central piece of this thing,” Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King, who sponsored the event, told PJ Media.

“It was a mistake for Reagan to sign amnesty in ’86. He didn’t let me down very often – that time he did. This still remains the fruits of that – the mindset that you can reward people for breaking the law and somehow they’re going to be law abiders later on. They won’t be.”

Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz made an appearance and warned against a repeat of 1986 when Congress passed “amnesty” without more “enforcement” on the border.

“I’ve got right now an amendment that I’ve introduced on the floor of the Senate that puts real teeth into border security,” said Cruz, a member of the Judiciary Committee.

“It triples the U.S. Border Patrol. It increases four-fold the helicopters and fixed-wing assets and technology on the border. It requires that we build a secure fence that’s been mandated for years in federal law.”

His amendment would also require “100 percent operational control” of the border before granting a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

Cruz also suggested abolishing the Internal Revenue Service and moving IRS agents to the border.

“You need to take every one of those IRS agents and put them down on the southern border,” Cruz said.

“You’ve got to admit if you were coming across the border illegally and you saw an army of IRS agents, you’d turn around.”



While Cruz’s comments were made in jest, the IRS has reportedly been training agents to operate semi-automatic AR-15 rifles.

“I think Americans raise eyebrows when you tell them that IRS agents are training with a type of weapon that has stand-off capability. It’s not like they’re carrying a sidearm and they knock on someone’s door and say, ‘You’re evading your taxes,’” Rep. Jeff Duncan has said.

Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Mike Kelly echoed Cruz’s position.

“We saw what happened in ’86. They said secure the borders and they didn’t,” said Kelly.

“Nothing should go forward until we get the border security enforced, that’s the key. All of these folks are showing up not because they just don’t like government but they don’t like what government’s doing. They don’t trust them anymore and I don’t blame them.”

Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert said the GOP-led House “should do nothing but a resolution that says the president must secure the border and until that’s verified by four border states, we’re not moving forward on immigration.”

Gohmert said President Obama cannot “hold up the enforcement of the law and hold that for ransom to get amnesty – it’s not right.”