by Four Democratic and four Republican Senators – flanked by a varied group of labor,business, civil and religious groups, and liberals and conservatives – came together to announce they had created a sensible, common-sense immigration reform bill, and vowed to make sure that this time, the proposed legislation becomes a reality. The Senators said the bill would be marked up in three weeks, and they are hoping the Senate votes on it before the end of June.
“Our system is broken, and Americans know that,” said New Jersey Democratic Senator Robert Menendez, one of the eight Senators who produced an over 800-page bipartisan bill that proposes to transform the nation’s existing immigration laws. “At the very beginning I wasn’t sure of their commitment,” said Menendez of his colleagues, “but very shortly it became clear — there was in fact a real desire to solve a problem that for too long has gone unsolved,” said Menendez.
“…We are dealing with this because it’s in our national interest — and because it’s who we are — we are the most compassionate people on earth,” said Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who joked and said, “I changed my mind” at the beginning of his speech, acknowledging in a funny way how the ideologically different Senators had reached consensus on such a thorny issue.
RELATED: Senate immigration bill revealed: a path to citizenship, shift in employer-based visas
Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said despite the tough negotiations, there was one evening where all the Senators agreed on what needed to be done — and that is when the Dreamers were discussed. “Everyone said, it is time,” said Durbin, who then singled out three Dreamers, including two Latinas, Gaby Pacheco and Lorella Praelli.
Acknowledging the outsize political role the young immigrants took on, the Illinois Senator said of the Dreamers, “they spent most of their young lives counseled, keep your head down; having learned that as children, they realized that to be a part of the political process they had to do just the opposite.”
In anticipation of what will be a tough fight in Congress, the Republican Senators went to great pains to say that the pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants was not amnesty, but a way to ensure fair wages for everyone, secure borders and modernize the economy. South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsay Graham said the real amnesty was doing nothing.
Arizona Republican Senator John McCain was very blunt in tying the fate of immigration reform to Republicans’ chances with the growing Latino electorate.
“Here’s straight talk,” said Senator McCain. Republicans have got to compete for the Hispanic vote, he said, and added that while passage doesn’t necessarily gain a single vote, “what it does is put us on a level where we can compete in the battle of ideas.”
McCain, one of the bill’s main champions along with New York Democrat Chuck Schumer, also threw down the gauntlet on future efforts by other Republicans to work against reform. “I am committed to vote against an amendment that would kill the bill,” said McCain.
Senator Rubio said that under the proposed bill, undocumented immigrants would not receive federal benefits and would pay taxes.
The Senators said they are optimistic about the legislation.
“We see liberals and conservatives, business and labor — everyone together,” said Menendez, who like Rubio, spoke in both English and Spanish. “It is the best chance I have seen in 20 years to get immigration reform passed.”
