There are some mixed messages being sent from key Washington legislators regarding the chances that the compromise bill on immigration proposed by the "Gang of Eight" bipartisan senate panel will pass into law.
While President Obama told a panel of reporters at a press conference Tuesday that he was optimistic that the senate bill that would create a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and toughen border security measures would pass, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a key member of the bipartisan panel, gave a more grim outlook that the bill might not pass the Republican-controlled House.
On Tuesday, President Obama said he had heard that some in the House were considering proposing an immigration compromise bill of their own, and while indicating he would be open to a proposal, he reiterated that he would not support any bill omitting a pathway to citizenship.
"Now, I haven't seen what members of the House are yet proposing, and maybe they think that they can answer some of those questions differently or better, and I think we've got to be open-minded in seeing what they come up with," he said at the press conference.
"The bottom line, though, is that they've still got to meet those basic criteria. Does it make the border safer? Does it [deal] with employers and how they work with the governments to make sure that people are not being taken advantage of or taking advantage of the system? Are we improving our legal immigration system? And are we creating a pathway for citizenship for the 11 million or so who are undocumented in this country?"
The bipartisan House group has yet to announce the details of the bill or the timeline. However, as the Huffington Post notes, one of the members, Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, said this week that their pathway to citizenship would be tougher than the "Gang of Eight" plan.
The Gang of Eight's plan calls for a 13-year pathway to citizenship with a cutoff date of December 2011, under which undocumented immigrants already in the U.S. would have to wait 10 years to get a green card and three more to gain citizenship while paying back taxes and fines. However, they could also live, work and travel in the U.S. under a special provisional legal status.
Nevertheless, President Obama made it clear that the bill proposed by the House group needed to pass several criteria, or else he would not support the bill.
"If they meet those criteria but they're slightly different from the Senate bill, then I think we should be able to come up with an appropriate compromise," Obama continued. "If it doesn't meet those criteria, then I will not support such a bill. So we'll have to wait and see."
Meanwhile, Sen. Rubio on Tuesday didn't give a very good forecast for his group's proposed bill in regards to passing at the House floor.
"The bill that's in place right now probably can't pass the House," Rubio said on Mike Gallagher's conservative radio show, as reported by CNN. "It will have to be adjusted, because people are very suspicious about the willingness of the government to enforce the laws now."
Rubio indicated that part of the reason why the bill was encountering difficulty is due to the issue of border security. Many GOP members worried that if the federal government wasn't able to secure the border now, they would be hard-pressed to do it down the road, he said.
"That is a very legitimate suspicion, it's one that I share, and if there's anything we can do to make (the bill) even tighter...that's exactly what we should be working on," said Rubio.
"Let's try to fix it," Rubio said. "Let's try to change it, but to just say, 'let's defeat the whole thing,' I don't think that's a productive approach either."
- Contribute to this Story:
- Send us a tip
- Send us a photo or video
- Suggest a correction
