After passing the Senate Judiciary Committee, the comprehensive immigration reform bill first drafted by the so-called Gang of Eight made its way to the Senate floor on Friday.
The bill itself won’t be debated until this coming Monday, June 10. Rather, today the Senators are deciding whether the full Senate should take up the bill.
But make no mistake, the full Senate will be taking up this bill come next week.
Once it does, we can expect a lot of push back from anti-immigration reform conservatives, including Jeff Sessions of Alabama. Sessions has reserved three hours to argue against the bill and won’t be alone in his efforts.
There has been some uncertainty as to whether or not the bill will gain enough bipartisan support to pass the Senate as well as the conservative-leaning House of Representatives. Among those is Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who was among the eight Senators that helped draft the bill.
Rubio has cast doubt in recent weeks as to if the bill can even pass the Senate, let alone gain substantial Republican support. His concerns lie mainly with the issue of border security and if the bill does enough to strengthen it.
Many conservatives want the pathway to citizenship provision of the bill to be contingent on meeting border security measures, which would place the fates of millions of undocumented immigrants into the hands of Homeland Security officials.
We cannot let this happen, we must continue the fight for immigration reform. With the Senate about the debate the bill, and with the House still yet to draft its own proposal, now is the time that we contact members of Congress and let them know that the American public continues to want immigration reform.
