This week the progressive blogosphere (see: Kos on the politics, including Reid’s statement that he had 56 votes, (and the Senate picture), Atrios for the skeptics, and Digby with the arithmetic) began commenting on the resurgence of immigration reform, after Majority Leader Reid’s statements at a rally in Las Vegas on Saturday:
“We are going to pass comprehensive immigration reform,” Reid told the crowd. “We need to do this this year. We can’t let excuses like a Supreme Court nomination get in the way.”
Reid promised the legislation would include provisions to secure both the north and
south borders, revisions to a guest worker program, and provisions to deal with illegal immigrants already in the country.
“There are no excuses. This is something America needs,” Reid said. “We’re going to do immigration reform just like we did health care reform.”
Those were welcome words to the crowd gathered in Las Vegas and to millions of Voters around the country.
Yesterday, Reid, back in DC, put his comments into the Senate schedule, stating that the Senate won’t take up the bill before Memorial Day:
But Reid also noted that two top priorities would not be on the agenda before Memorial Day: comprehensive immigration reform, and moving forward on a nominee for the Supreme Court.
“We won’t get to immigration reform this work period,” he said. “We won’t get to the Supreme Court justice.”
