New York Senator Charles Schumer says that the bipartisan Senate group known as the “Gang of Eight” is very near to reaching a draft of legislation intended to overhaul the immigration laws in the United States – it is around “90 percent” done, he claims.
“Bottom line is, we’ve very close,” Schumer, a member of the Democratic Party, insisted while attending a news conference in Arizona following a tour of the Mexican border there yesterday. “I’d say we’re 90 percent there. We have a few little problems to work on.”
Schumer says the border tour, on which he was joined by fellow Senators Jeff Flake and John McCain, both Arizona Republicans, and Senator Michael Bennett – who is a Colorado Democrat, helped him to have a greater understanding of the challenges faced in securing the United States border and makes it easier for him to explain why Republicans are so insistent on improving border security in the plan to his Democratic colleagues in the Senate.
Republicans are demanding that including a path to US citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the country has to hinge on increasing border security. “Whatever your views on immigration, Arizona is ground zero,” Schumer noted. “We should do more, but that’s not the end all and be all.”
The Senate group is intending to reveal its proposal for immigration reform, which is based upon principles it released toward the end of January, in the week of the 8th April.