Senator Chuck Schumer believes that the immigration bill will pass the Senate by the 4th of July. The full Senate will begin voting on the Gang of Eight’s immigration reform bill, next week and the bill will be introduced in the Senate on 10th June. Senator Schumer stated that he and the other members of the Gang of Eight who crafted the immigration reform bill hope that their bill would get 70 votes and pass the Senate. He also stated that they would be happy to consider amendments that would improve the bill and not those that would damage the core principles of their bill.
The bill will be sent to the House after it passes the Senate. Many believe that the bill will not easily pass the House as the Republicans are against the legalization process. Many members of the Republican party say that the law breakers must not be granted amnesty. On a public affairs show, Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, stated that the Senate bill will not move in the House. The House is interested in smaller bills and 8 members from the Republican party are working on some smaller immigration reform bills.
Most of the measures that are included in the Senate bill are likely to be included in the bills that the Republicans are crafting. But the Republicans would come up with stricter measures. The members of the House have not yet unveiled their bill but they recently announced that they have reached a deal. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, stated that the bill that the US Congress passes must not include a path to US citizenship. He also stated that the undocumented immigrants must be permitted to enter the legalization process only after the government enforces border security measures and strengthens the borders of the country.
The House wants to fix the country’s broken immigration system. At the same time, the House controlled by the Republicans may not accept the bill that the Senate passes. The Senate immigration bill that is headed to the Senate floor, would legalize the undocumented immigrants and put them on a path to US citizenship. Though the bill would stiffen border security, Republicans are not happy about the bill and they say that the border security measures included in the Senate bill are not tough enough. Nevertheless, the full Senate would begin debating the bill on 10th June and the members of the Gang of Eight believe that their bill would pass the Senate before the 4th of July.