Post date: Apr 18, 2013 9:57:56 PM
Senators talk up a bipartisan immigration reform plan that gives legal status to around 11 million illegal immigrants.
WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (APRIL 18, 2013) (UNRESTRICTED POOL) - A bipartisan group of senators continued the process Thursday (April 18) of trying to sell a freshly written, 844-page immigration bill knowing that changes will be made but vowing to protect the pillars of what they hope will become a landmark law.
The ambitious plan, to give legal status to around 11 million illegal immigrants, already has won some powerful backing.President Barack Obama's embraced the bill on Tuesday, even before the eight Democratic and Republican authors posted it online hours later.
"Yes, we offer a path to citizenship to people who didn't come here legally. We are a nation conscience that can't tolerate the terrible violations of human rights that our current dysfunctional immigration system is unable to prevent," said SenatorJohn McCain, a Republican from Arizona.
The bill has been greeted skeptically by some conservatives arguing among other things that it could be too costly, a theme which has gained traction among Tea Party groups across the country.
Lawmakers, lobbyists and immigration groups girded for a long, tough fight that is expected to extend at least through the summer and with no guarantees of success on the bill that would also make it easier for industry, particularly high-tech industry and agriculture, to hire workers from abroad.
The sales job on the legislation, "Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013," continued in earnest on Thursday.
"I am convinced this issue will not fall victim to the usual partisan gridlock, and we are mindful that we approach our task at a moment when the American public has not been more fed up with congress, but in a week when disillusionment with politics is being acutely felt, this bipartisan breakthrough offers a degree of hope," said Senator Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York and one of the bill's main authors.