Last night, the immigration reform world cheered as the Senate Judiciary Committee passed the Gang of 8 immigration reform bill out of markup on a 13-5 bipartisan vote. As our own executive director Frank Sharry said:
Today immigration reform took a giant step forward. The Gang of Eight bill is a carefully balanced piece of legislation that has broad-based bipartisan support and emerges from the committee as a stronger bill than when it went in. This is a bill that can both pass this Congress and work when implemented.
Below is a running collection of responses to the vote, from immigrant rights groups and their allies, and from commentators and editorial boards.
Lawrence Downes at the New York Times had high praise for the markup process in general, led by chairman of the Judiciary Committee Pat Leahy (D-VT):
The workmanlike efficiency that characterized the drafting process has been on display in the committee room as well. Of the bipartisan “Gang of 8” who wrote the initial bill, four are on the committee — the Democrats Chuck Schumer of New York and Dick Durbin of Illinois and the Republicans Jeff Flake of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. They and the other committee members have held together against a barrage of amendments offered by hard-line Republicans – usually but not always Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Charles Grassley of Iowa and Ted Cruz of Texas — that would poison S.744 in a variety of ways, like setting unattainable standards for certifying that the border is sealed, or making it impossible for unauthorized immigrants to qualify for legalization, or simply decreeing that legal immigration must be reduced outright.
Here’s Voto Latino on how the path to citizenship must be protected in immigration reform as bill continues on:
Not only did the bipartisan immigration bill come out of committee without major changes that could have threatened the diverse coalition supporting the proposal, but it came out stronger than it went in. Senators accepted dozens of Republican amendments that strengthened the proposal, including measures that give American companies access to the labor and talent they need to continue growing their business without costing American jobs.
The Gang of Eight bill has cleared a major hurdle and tonight we celebrate this accomplishment, but tomorrow our fight for sensible comprehensive immigration reform resumes. As the House of Representatives prepares to unveil their own proposal, they should build on the Senate’s work by expanding immigrants’ access to healthcare, including preventive care that will strengthen families and reduce healthcare costs across the nation. We will also demand an earned, but fair path to citizenship for the 11 million because anything short of that will lead to a system that creates two sets of residents — American citizens and permanent second class. That we will never accept.
Below in an excerpt from the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights statement on the necessity of immigration reform:
Immigration reform is one of the defining civil and human rights issues of our time. That’s why yesterday’s bipartisan vote to advance a compromise bill to the full Senate is a welcome step forward for the nation.
To be clear, civil rights advocates did not get a perfect bill; we got a compromise bill that promotes the core principle of advancing a roadmap to citizenship for more than 11 million undocumented immigrants.
We applaud the efforts of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Chairman Leahy, who expertly led and managed a fair mark-up in regular order. Leahy should be especially commended for standing up for civil rights and civil liberties. Senator Schumer’s leadership was also critical in clearing this important hurdle. The pressure on this committee to sink this legislation was ferocious – yet the committee worked together to advance a strong compromise bill.
We know that this is one step among many as we continue to advocate for fair and inclusive immigration reform. As we approach the full Senate vote and the upcoming House consideration, there will be some who wish to poison this coalition; they will fail.
From the American Immigration Council:
We congratulate Senator Leahy and the entire Senate Judiciary Committee on the spirit of deliberation, collaboration, and transparency that marked the process. Many amendments added during the mark-up will strengthen the bill in the areas of high-skilled immigration, protections for vulnerable groups and due process. However, other amendments, like those attempting to deny citizenship, may have been driven more by rhetoric than reality. In addition, not providing some relief to siblings who face extreme hardships because of their separation and not ending the discrimination against same sex couples legally married in the United States is short-sighted and bad policy. Yet despite these high costs, the overall bill coming out of committee now gives the Senate an important and rare opportunity to complete the task we have been working on for years—passage of a comprehensive immigration reform bill that finally moves us to our goal of fixing our broken immigration system.
The National Center for Lesbian Rights, GLAAD, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, United We Dream and Queer Undocumented Immigrant Project, Lambda Legal, Equality Federation and the National Center for Transgender Equality released a joint statement the lack of immigration equality in the bill the Senate Judiciary Committee passed:
We are disappointed that certain senators threatened the entire immigration reform bill simply because it affords 28,500 same-sex binational couples equal immigration rights. At the same time, we thank Senator Leahy for standing up for these families. A majority of Americans—53 percent—believe that all consenting adults should have the right to get married and that gender should not play a role in who is considered family.
We desperately need to reform our broken immigration system immediately because it dehumanizes, scapegoats and vilifies all immigrants, including LGBT immigrants. We will continue to advocate and support changes to the bill that will create the most accessible pathway to citizenship possible and allow all undocumented immigrants the opportunity to become citizens, and we will continue to ardently oppose draconian amendments that would make immigrants permanent second-class citizens and create undue hardships along a pathway to citizenship.
And here’s Jonathan Bernstein at the Washington Post looking at immigration reform’s prospects in the House:
On the House side … well, the best the House bipartisan group can do on key issues is to agree to disagree for now. Meanwhile, Democratic leaders have backed away from the House bipartisan effort because it is too conservative for them, while Republicans still haven’t committed to moving any full comprehensive bill — and with conservative outside groups adding to the pressure, the math of the House will require leaders of both parties to be on board for any House-authored bill to succeed.
In other words, it still appears that the only bill that could win in the House would be something passed by a strong bipartisan vote in the Senate.
Here’s Jim Wallis, President and CEO, of Sojourners:
As Evangelical Christians we are very grateful for the spirit of bipartisanship shown by the Senate Judiciary Committee in advancing legislation that reflects our nation’s best values on immigration. This shows political courage for the common good.
From Small Business Majority:
The legislation includes a pathway to citizenship, which small business owners strongly support. Our polling found small businesses believe creating a path to earned citizenship is the most appropriate solution for handling our country’s 11 million undocumented immigrants. Three-quarters believe we would be better off if people who are in the country illegally become legal taxpayers and can work toward citizenship in the future.
Small businesses need smart policies that strengthen our recovering economy and give them what they need to compete. They resoundingly agree comprehensive immigration reform will do just that. We hope the full Senate continues in the committee’s footsteps and votes to pass immigration reform.
From Reform Immigration for Texas on how the Senators from Texas, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, failed to support the immigration bill in markup:
Texans all over the state watched with excitement last night as S. 744, the immigration reform proposal, was passed out of committee by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
However, this excitement was mixed with disgust as we watched our two senators vote against the bill. Not only that, they both voted on amendments to the bill that would remove the pathway to citizenship and would bar immigrants from ever being able to receive public benefits like healthcare.
Here’s the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC):
Today’s passage of the comprehensive immigration reform bill from the Senate Judiciary Committee is a promising sign that we may see a new law passed this year. We welcome this milestone. In the spirit of bipartisanship, the Senate Judiciary Committee has stopped bad amendments and added good amendments as they worked to pass comprehensive immigration reform. However, we are also concerned that the Senate bill is eliminating the rights of U.S. citizens to sponsor their siblings and older adult children. This means, they may be separated from their loved ones indefinitely only because they do not possess high skills or higher education degrees. For some of our community members, a brother or sister is the only family they have. Family unity allows our community to grow and thrive. NAKASEC will continue to mobilize and advocate for critical amendments such as the preservation of the family immigration system and ensuring that the path to citizenship is as affordable as possible and provides access to public benefits to all hard working, taxpaying immigrants.
