“I’m not going to call it a fig leaf. I think it is an actual enforcement amendment,” said Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho), a former immigration lawyer who worked for months with a bipartisan House group crafting immigration legislation. “The issue with it is that it legalizes 11 million people before it is put into place all the way.”…

“If you flip it, and you say the Corker-Hoeven amendment has to be in place before you legalize 11 million people, then I would be more supportive of it,” Labrador said.

At issue, Republicans say, is the lack of trust that their constituents have in the federal government to enforce immigration laws and secure the border after immigrants are legalized.

“My constituents believe that border security is a condition precedent,” said Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on Immigration. “I cannot go to my district and ask people to trust us. I just can’t.”