Senator Jeff Flake says that he thinks the chances look increasingly good that the House of Representatives will take up immigration reform after last week’s push from business, law enforcement, and religious groups. Flake still has ties to the House of Representatives after having served there for 12 years prior to his election to the Senate.
“From those I’ve been talking to, I think that we’ve got a good shot at a breakthrough here,” Flake informed the Arizona Republic. “The House can move this as fast as they want if they decide to do this. There is time and space on the calendar between now and the end of the year if we decide we can do it.”
Flake was among the Gang of Eight Senators that drafted an immigration reform bill earlier this year in the Senate, which is controlled by the Democrats. That bill included a 13-year pathway to US citizenship for undocumented immigrants who were able to pass background checks and pay taxes and penalties, along with a number of other steps, but many Republicans in the House of Representatives are opposed to the bill, complaining that it is offering “amnesty.”
The brand new bill would enable “Dreamers,” young immigrants who came to the United States when they were just children, as well as specific farm workers, to be able to put in an application for legal status, although others would still be forced to follow the existing rules and could not jump ahead of legal immigrants.