The past week of mayhem in Massachusetts thanks to two immigrant suspects accused of the Boston Marathon bombings has added fuel to the fire of the debate for immigration reform just as the bipartisan Senate panel's compromise bill has reached Congress for debate.
There have already been voices for and against the bill reforming the nation's immigration laws that has been submitted by the bipartisan senate panel known as the "Gang of Eight," a bill that has largely brought more Republicans to the table as the GOP seeks to change their image among immigrant and Latino voters following the November elections.
However, a new twist to the debate came this week after authorities revealed that two Chechen brothers, who immigrated to the U.S. in 2002 a minors, were suspected of setting off the bombs at the Boston Marathon on April 15 that killed three people and wounded more than 180 others. The older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was killed in a shootout with police on Thursday while the other, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was arrested after a statewide manhunt that ended in Watertown on Friday.
On Friday, Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, said the new information about the bombing suspects should slow the pace of the immigration bill being passed due to questions over the current immigration laws that should be addressed first. However, those in favor of the bill, including the legislators on the "Gang of Eight" admonished Sen. Grassley's comments, some stating that the bombings should in fact put the bill on a faster track, not delay it.
On Sunday, legislators from both sides took to the airwaves to air their sides.
"I agree with Senator Grassley," Sen. Daniel Coats, R-Ind., said on ABC News's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos." As the Washington Post notes, Coats was urging caution against rushing the bill due to the bombings. "You usually end up with bad policy if you do it in an emotional way or an emotional reaction."
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a member of the bipartisan panel, disagreed on CNN's "State of the Union." "Now is the time to bring all of the 11 million (illegal immigrants) out of the shadows and find out who they are," Sen. Graham said. "We may find some terrorists in our midst who have been hiding in the shadows."
Graham added that the legislation that was submitted by the panel has several provisions that would allow better tracking of who comes and goes in the U.S. from abroad on visas.
"The 19 (9/11) hijackers were all students who overstayed their visas and the system didn't capture that," Graham argued. "We're going to fix that. ... What happened in Boston should urge us to act quicker."
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., another panel member, also appeared on CNN to defend the bill.
"Our law toughens things up," Schumer told CNN. "There are some on the hard right, some otherwise, who oppose our immigration bill from the get-go, and they're using this as an excuse. We are not going to let them do that."
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illi., argued on NBC's "Meet the Press" that if anything, doing nothing on the issue of immigration reform would put the country at greater risk than if a bill was passed addressing the issues on immigration.
"The worst thing we can do is nothing. If we do nothing, leaving 11 million people in the shadows, not making our border safer, not having the information that comes from employment and these visa holders, we will be less safe in America," Durbin said Sunday, as noted by Real Clear Politics. "Immigration reform will make us safer. And I hope that those who are critical of it will just come forward and say what their idea is. We've come up with a sound plan to keep this country safe."
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