The Senate Judiciary Committee passed the immigration reform bill of the Gang of Eight after adopting few amendments and after making few changes to the bill. Proponents of immigration reform say that the bill would easily pass the Senate but not the House that is controlled by the Republicans. The Democrats are happy about the Senate immigration reform bill as it would legalize the undocumented immigrants and they are willing to pass the Gang of Eight’s immigration reform bill. The Republicans do not want to legalize undocumented immigrants and according to them, undocumented immigrants in the country must not be granted amnesty as this would encourage more foreign nationals to get into the country and settle there illegally.
The House wants to fix the immigration system of the United States and House Speaker John Boehner stated that the House will not simply take up the Senate bill and accept it. He and few other lawmakers stated that the House will work on its own bill and soon introduce it. Supporters of immigration reform believed that the House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor, would support immigration reform. They also believed that the Republican Party would support immigration reform. Republicans need to support immigration reform in order to attract the Hispanics and there are few members in the party who are now supporting immigration reform. On the other hand, there are some conservative GOP lawmakers who are against immigration reform. Such members are opposing the Senate bill as it would legalize the immigrants who have broken the laws of the country and who are in the country without authorization. They think that it is equal to granting them amnesty.
Republican Congressmen, Steve King, Louie Gohmert and Steve Stockman are against immigration reform. They are not only against illegal immigration but also against legal immigration. If they continue to revolt against the immigration reform bill, the bill would sink similar to the immigration reform bill that was killed in 2007. These three Republicans are comparing immigration reform to the healthcare law of President Obama, that was not supported by the conservatives. Similar to the Senate, the House also has a bipartisan Gang of Eight, that has been meeting and crafting its own immigration reform bill. Members of this gang stated that they have reached a deal and that they would release their bill soon. According to Politico, this gang is still debating on issues related to border security and has come to an agreement on few different issues. The members of the House prefer a piecemeal approach, but the members of the Senate who want a larger bill, feel that this kind of approach would leave behind the legalization programs.