Sen. Schumer: There's 'a chance' of immigration reform soon
There's a chance that immigration reform could happen soon, but it's not a sure thing, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday.
"I think there's a chance. I don't put it at a majority chance, but there's a chance. We're still talking — I'm talking to both business and labor about this bill," Schumer said in an interview with Bloomberg News. "I'm talking to my Republican colleagues, and I think the Republican Party realizes that the position of doing nothing on immigration doesn't help them. Furthermore, there's becoming an economic imperative."
"More and more people are realizing that our broken immigration system is an economic drag on the country, and I think there's a chance we could get a bill," Schumer said.
Schumer's comments came the same day that a group of Democratic senators reintroduced that DREAM Act which offers illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. before the age of 16 a potential path to citizenship.
Both Schumer's comments and the reintroduction of the act followed a speech by President Obama on Tuesday in which he urged Congress to again pass the DREAM Act. It passed once before in the House but fell a few votes short of the majority required in the Senate to overcome a filibuster.
Despite Schumer's optimism, it appears unlikely that the bill would make it through the Republican-controlled House even if it passed the Senate.