Over the weekend, Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) stated:
“To try to do immigration reform this year would be an impossibility.”
He listed all the items on Congress’ “already crammed” agenda to prove his point. But one item he mentioned on that agenda is the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor as Supreme Court Justice. Despite the best efforts of Kyl and his colleague, Sen. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, that should be wrapped up by the end of next week. In all probability, we’ll be calling Sonia “Justice Sotomayor” before our good Senators settle in for August recess.
Here’s the thing. A whole lot of people, starting with President Obama, have already been building broad consensus on Comprehensive Immigration Reform. A whole lot of people (a clear majority of the American people, in fact) want comprehensive reform, including a whole lot of Republican voters (63% generally, shooting up to 89% when these voters hear the details). The Council on Foreign Relations also recently laid out a set of clear, bipartisan principles for immigration reform.