Immigration Reform 2013 News: President Bush To Deliver Speech On Reform Bill As Congress Debates Legislation

As Congress prepares itself for a major debate regarding the controversial immigration reform proposal from the Senate, former President George W. Bush plans to speak on the bill next week.

As the Dallas Morning News reports, President Bush, who supported immigration reform during his second term in the White House, will deliver opening remarks on Wednesday, July 10 at a citizenship ceremony at the George W. Bush Presidential Center.

So far, there are no confirmed reports of whether the former Republican president will offer public support for the current immigration bill during his speech.

However, Bush has been a supporter for immigration reform in the past, having pushed in 2007 for his version of the bill, which was defeated in the GOP-controlled Senate amid a strong opposing push from conservative grassroots groups.

The current bill on the table, proposed by the bipartisan Senate panel known as the "Gang of Eight", would put millions of undocumented residents living in the U.S. on what could be a 13-year pathway to citizenship while bolstering security measures around the border.

Statistics collected by the George W. Bush Institute have added to the argument for Congress to pass the bill in to law. According to the institute's "4% Growth Project," immigration would play a role in its projections for creating 10 million new jobs within the next decade.

The institute has also been publishing several other findings and reports calling for a revamping of the immigration laws installed within the United States, "How Conservatives Should Think About Immigration Reform" among those reports.

However, despite the push on the bill from Bush, who was quite popular among the GOP base, conservatives on Capitol Hill still appear to be divided on the bill as it prepares to go before the Republican-controlled House for a vote.

Already, Republican legislators who have come out in support of the bill have been at odds with members of their own party and groups opposed to the bill--many on those fronts claiming that the bill would be offering "amnesty" to undocumented immigrants who are in the U.S.

"The Senate bill gives amnesty first and then says let's work on border security," said Rep. Trey Radel, R-Fla., according to the Sun Sentinel. "What I would like to do is see our border secured first and then work on a different paths for the 11 million that are here and, more importantly, reform our legal immigration system."

However, GOP legislators in favor of the bill have been pushing for the bill in order to make the party more viable with minority voters, especially Latinos, who handed the Republicans stinging defeats in the polls during the November elections. As The Hill.com notes, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., last week put some pressure on House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to support the bill.

"I really don't feel it's appropriate for me to tell [Boehner] exactly how he should handle this. But I think Republicans realize the implications for the future of the Republican Party in America if we don't get this issue behind us," McCain said on "Fox News Sunday."

Speaker Boehner has been largely quiet about where he stands in regards to supporting the immigration bill.