On Monday a bipartisan group of Senators, four Democrats and four Republicans, unveiled their proposal to change our nation’s immigration system. Here is how the deal laid out:
The deal includes a path to citizenship for an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants now living in the U.S.
The last time Washington attempted to revamp the immigration system was in 2007 and President Bush’s bill didn’t even make it to the Senate floor for a full vote. According to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) during Monday’s press conference, “this will be the year Congress finally gets it done.” As Congress clearly has White House support behind them, and as the bill that was proposed is very similar to the one the White House has been pushing, the real question is will conservative Republicans refuse to support it?
Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) who joined the show, said that along with other Republicans she is waiting to see what the exact details are and what other options are available. Rep. Blackburn said overall the “good thing is people are coming out and saying let’s get this problem solved and I like the fact that it has gone from being a back burner issue to a front burner issue.” However, when it comes to the bill there are certain “must haves” that she believes need to be included. We need to make certain that we have a secure border, amnesty should not be included as it has not worked before and will not work again, those that are in our country need to pay and right their wrongs. Rep. Blackburn continued to say, “finally you have to make certain that ICE is going to clean up their act, and that the immigration service is going to finally be a service that works. We all appreciate legal immigration, we want to encourage legal immigration and bring those individuals that want to come to America to seek a better life, we want to make certain they have the ability to be here legally.”
The eight senators do agree with Rep. Blackburn when it comes to borders; they said that before we can start creating permanent residents, we must first work on securing America’s borders and launch an employment verification system that actually works. As Rep. Blackburn said during the show, “This is a time to be very honest with the American people, just to say this is where we are, these are the facts, help us work through to a solution. I have to tell you I certainly hope that we do.”
Abby Borovitz