BREAKING: Senate Passes Historic Immigration Reform

On Thursday afternoon, an immigration reform bill that would affect millions of undocumented immigrants was approved by a final vote of 68 to 32 in the Senate. The bill puts up to 11 million undocumented immigrants on a pathway to citizenship and enforces tough border security measures. Vice President Joe Biden presided over the historic vote, in which all the senators were required to vote from their desks. The Senate gallery was packed with exuberant DREAMers, undocumented youths who were brought to the U.S. by their parents. The gallery chanted “Yes we can” after the bill was officially passed.

After the cloture vote occurred early Thursday afternoon, politicians on both sides of the aisle spoke emotionally about the need to pass the bill.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) teared up as he spoke of his wife’s father, who immigrated from Russia, and reflected on the letters sent to him by undocumented individuals who were brought to the U.S. as children and raised in fear of deportation. He compared present-day immigrants to all the previous waves of immigrants, notably lauding the achievements that these new Americans could contribute:

It recognizes that today’s immigrants came for the very same reason as generations before them– to achieve a dream we take for granted, the right to live in the land of the free.

Across the aisle, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) invoked his immigrant parents as he argued passionately that immigration reform will help future generations to fulfill their dreams:

Here, immigrants will give their children the life they once wanted for themselves. Here generations of unfulfilled dreams will finally come to pass. Even with all our challenges, we remain the shining city on the hill. We are still the hope of the world. And in the end, that is why I support this reform. Yes, I believe in immigrants, but I believe in America even more.

The bill now faces an uphill battle in the House, where many Republican congressmen have vowed their opposition to any kind of an immigration deal that includes a pathway to citizenship. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has promised that he would not advance a reform bill without a majority agreement by House Republicans.

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BREAKING: Senate Clears Way For Immigration Reform Bill To Pass With Broad Bipartisan Support

On Monday night, the Senate moved forward a key provision predicted to make or break its ability to pass comprehensive immigration reform. The amendment, offered by Sens. Bob Corker (R-TN) and John Hoeven (R-ND) and known as the “border surge” amendment, would add 20,000 border patrol agents, require the completion of 700 miles of fencing, and add 18 unmanned surveillance aircraft along the southern border. It escaped a filibuster by a vote of 67 to 27, with several Republicans joining the Democratic majority.

At a price tag of $30 billion to fund the agents alone, critics have said the amendment amounts to unnecessary spending — particularly given the fact that illegal immigration is at net zero, and the border is more secure than Republicans mandated it be in a 2007 reform effort. Still, the amendment enjoys broad support from progressives because it preserves one of the key aspects of the reform effort: a pathway to citizenship.

Shortly before the vote on Monday, the Congressional Budget Office released updated statistics on the bill given the adoption of the Corker-Hoeven amendment. It found that the amendment “would reduce the net flow of unauthorized residents to the United States relative to” the underlying bill. It also found that it would reduce the deficit slightly less than the underlying bill, given the spending required to implement the new border measures, in the first decade.

The vote on Monday night was for cloture — the ability to end debate on the amendment and move forward to voting for it. The Senate will now proceed to debate and then vote on the amendment itself. It is expected to pass.

On Wednesday, the Senate approved the amendment by a vote of 69 to 29.

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Chris Christie’s Handpicked Interim Senator Works Against Immigration Reform

Gov. Chris Christie and interim Sen. Jeff Chiesa (R-NJ) (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) has endorsed comprehensive immigration reform legislation including enhanced border security and a path to citizenship. But his handpicked U.S. Senate appointee, Jeffrey Chiesa (R), has cast yet another vote against the Senate’s immigration bill on Wednesday.

Christie’s words have been in support of immigration reform for years. In 2010, he told ABC’s This Week, “The president and the Congress have to step up to the plate, they have to secure our borders, and they have to put forward a commonsense path to citizenship for people. And until they do that, states are going to struggle all over the country with this problem, and so is federal law enforcement, who doesn’t have the resources to do it effectively.” In February of this year, he showcased his support, noting, “We cannot expect to get support from the Latino community if we don’t make the Latino community feel welcome and important in our party,” as a state Latino advocacy PAC praised him for his support of “comprehensive immigration reform” with “shared responsibility approach between government and the undocumented.”

With the death of progressive champion Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D), Christie got a rare opportunity to pick anyone he wanted to serve in the U.S. Senate until an October special election. In announcing his friend and former aide Chiesa, Christie raved, “There are very few people in my life that I know better than Jeff.”

Chiesa promised to support efforts to secure the borders and to hear out all sides on the immigration issue.

But since joining 83 colleagues in voting to take up the “Gang of Eight” comprehensive immigration reform bill, Chiesa has been a reliable vote for opponents seeking to attach what supporters call “poison pill” amendments to the bill. Among these were a proposal to require completion of hundreds of miles of border fencing before undocumented immigrants could become permanent residents and another to require other tough “triggers” and at least a 90 percent apprehension rate at the Mexican border before the pathway to citizenship begins.

Wednesday, Chiesa was one of just 31 Senators — all Republicans — to vote against a procedural motion to let the Senate vote on adopting the final amended version of the bill. Its adoption, which required three-fifths support, paved the way for votes on the final version later this week.

Chiesa’s hard-line approach is at odds with the people he is supposed to represent. Recent polling in New Jersey shows 62 percent support for the comprehensive bill and 71 percent support for a path to citizenship.

While the bill seems to enjoy strong bipartisan support, Christie’s failure to appoint someone who supports his own stated position has made the path to comprehensive reform that much harder.

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