Immigration reform can happen if House Speaker John Boehner allows S. 744 to the floor for an up-or-down vote. Credit: Texas Blue twitter page
Rep. Robin Kelly (D-IL)
urged on her facebook page that House Speaker John Boehner bring to the floor of the House of Representatives, S. 744, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act.
Rep. Kelly posted on facebook, "Speaker John Boehner, I agree with you that bipartisan immigration reform needs to pass Congress. Senators Kirk and Durbin worked across the aisle to pass S. 744, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, in the Senate. Let's finish the job here in the House."
So today, let's start this campaign to bring about public attention to immigration reform, and place pressure on the House of Representatives leadership. That pressure should start with Speaker John Boehner (please click on the icon to the right to support and donate to the continuation of the hard work of Rep. Robin Kelly).
President Obama has repeatedly called on the Congress to "work in a bipartisan manner to enact commonsense, comprehensive immigration reform that lives up to America’s heritage as a Nation of laws and a Nation of immigrants and ensures that everyone plays by the same rules."
It is clear that fixing the Nation’s broken immigration system is an economic, national security, and moral imperative. S. 744 contains all of the elements Republicans have repeatedly said they want – continue to strengthen border security; crack down on employers that hire and exploit undocumented workers; create a meaningful pathway to earned citizenship for undocumented immigrants while also requiring these individuals to pass background checks, pay taxes and a penalty, learn English, and move to the back of the line; and modernize the legal immigration system for families, workers, and employers.
Senate Judiciary Committee held multiple hearings and adopted dozens of amendments that strengthened and refined this bill. The bill, S. 744, is the product of bipartisan compromise, and the members of the bipartisan Senate “Gang of Eight” are also to be applauded for their hard work.
Now our nation turns to the House leadership, starting with Speaker John Boehner. Follow that with turning to Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California and Majority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana.
The upside for the Republicans is that quick passage of S. 744 would mean that a major issue over the next two years would come to a close, and strip Democrats of an issue as the 2016 presidential election is around the corner. It means that republicans can spend more time on their pet issues.
The problem is the Republicans will likely not follow that wise advice. They will continue to be known as the "Do Nothing" House of Representatives, with a chance to seal their brand as a "Do Nothing" Republican party. Passage of S.744 could reverse that label; however, history says the Republicans will "Do Nothing" on immigration reform, and a variety of many other issues important to many Americans in the 114th Congress.