Senate moves immigration reform bill forward, debate to begin, John McCain didn’t vote

The Senate overcame a critical hurdle on Tuesday toward advancing the first immigration reform in a generation that would affect the nation’s “11 million” illegal immigrants, all U.S. employers and future legal immigrants.

A procedural vote to begin formal debate on the bill was approved 84-15 on a bipartisan vote. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., both voted to advance the bill despite lingering resistance from some elements of both parties.

“There are 11 million reasons to pass common-sense immigration reform that mends our broken system — 11 million stories of heartbreak and suffering that should motivate Congress to act,” Reid said.

A few hours before Tuesday’s vote, Obama tried to build momentum for the proposal at a White House event where he called it a commonsense approach to fix a broken system.

President Obama did his part calling for Immigration Reform as the Senate Bill moved forward on Tuesday photo donkeyhotey donkeyhotey.wordpress.com

“You have to pass background checks, you have to learn English, you have to pay taxes and a penalty and then you have to go to the back of the line behind everybody who has done things the right way and have tried to come here legally,” Obama said.

“The Gang of Eight has done its work. Now it’s time for the Gang of 100 to do its work — for the entire Senate to have its say on this issue, and see if we can do something to improve the status quo,” McConnell said.

The Gang of Eight is a group of eight senators — four Republican and four Democrats — who worked on the original version of the bill.

Opponents led by GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas accused Democrats of insisting on the pathway to citizenship as part of the bill, knowing House conservatives won’t accept it.

“I think it’s going to pass the U.S. Senate with a substantial margin,” Cruz said. But “absent major revisions … this bill will crash and burn in the House. And it is designed to do so.”

“The bill grants permanent legal status to millions of undocumented immigrants, as currently written, without really any guarantee of securing the border. Now, how would that possibly be a good idea?” asked Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the chamber’s No. 2 Republican, who voted Tuesday for opening debate.

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