Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Boehner’s Immigration Comments Stirs Up Controversy with Reform Advocates

With the recent focus primarily on Obamacare, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wanted to ensure the public that he is still pushing for immigration reform this year after House Speaker John Boehner stated last week that talks between the House and the Senate regarding immigration reform were practically dead for this year.

“I’m not going to give up on this year,” Reid said of immigration reform. “If Boehner can bring to the floor within 24 hours the bill that the House approved Friday to stop health insurance policy cancellations, he can do the same for immigration.”

With only a few weeks left in the 2013 calendar, Speaker Boehner and members of the House of Representatives are feeling the pressure to bring a vote to the House.

However, Reid isn’t the only immigration reform advocate disturbed by Boehner’s comments last week. Sen. Bob Menendez, member of the “gang of eight,” the bi-partisan group of eight Senators who drafted the already Senate passed comprehensive immigration reform bill said Boehner’s comments and actions is an insult to those people who want to see immigration reform in this country.

“Refusing to even negotiate on this issue does not reflect the true intentions of the majority of the U.S. Congress of the American people,” said Menendez. He labeled Boehner’s comments as the same kind of Republican obstructionism that led the U.S. government to shut down last month.

NBC Latino