ImmigrationImmigration bill gains more support

The immigration reform effort has been gaining  support from Republican Senators—and from a couple of wavering Democrats – over the weekend, following a beefing-up of the bill’s security provisions by an amendment authored by Senators bob Corker (R-Tennessee) and John Hoeven (R-North Dakota).

The Hill quotes Senator Charles Schumer (D-New York) as saying that the bill now has support from nearly two-thirds of the Senate’s members. He predicted it would attract “in the neighborhood of 70 votes” when the vote is taken.

Schumer went on to say that this level of support would put pressure on the House of Representatives to pass the bill.

“If he tries to bottle it up or do things like that, I could see a million people on the mall in Washington,” Schumer said on CNN’s State of the Union.

The agreement last Thursday between members of the Gang of Eight, who had drafted the bill, and Senators  Corker  and  Hoeven  to double the number of border agents and add 700 miles of fencing along the southern border would go a long way to persuade skeptical GOP lawmakers to support the measure.

The measure also includes a provision which will prevent immigrants from claiming time working in the U.S. illegally when calculating Social Security benefits. Welfare checks will not be given to those with provisional legal status.

The agreement upset some democratic senators such as Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), but Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) opened the door for Republican support when he refrained from trying to convince Republicans to oppose the bill, although it is unclear whether he will vote for the bill himself.

The bill’s main critic, , Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama), says once the details of the agreement are released, Republican support will decrease.

Sessions noted that the legislation will not require the full deployment of 20,000 border agents until 2021, and that DHS secretary Janet Napolitano can ignore the fence building requirement if she believes it is unnecessary.

“If people find out this amendment does not accomplish what the sponsors believe it does, I think the bill could be back in trouble again,” Sessions said on Face the Nation.

Even with Republican support in the Senate, there is still a possibility that the House will not pass any bill that includes a pathway to citizenship.