Senator Dean Heller, one of the 14 members of the Republican Party who voted to pass the comprehensive immigration reform bill in the Senate last year, says that such reform would also pass the House of Representatives if it was actually allowed a vote on the House floor.
Talking to an immigration forum that had been sponsored by the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, Mi Familia Vota, Justice for Immigrants and various other groups on Wednesday, Hill said that the whole of the Nevada delegation in the House of Representatives would vote to approve the measure if it came to a floor vote. “To get something done by the end of the year, I’m optimistic,” Hill informed the crowd that had gathered at Pine Middle School in Reno. “I’m optimistic. Their leadership is optimistic. They’ve got some push back. But I will tell you this in closing: I believe as I stand in front of you today, if you put comprehensive immigration reform on the floor of the House of Representative, it would pass today.”
Loud applause greeted Heller’s comments, which he followed up by saying he was confident that the bill will pass when and if it is able to make it to the floor of the House.
Heller, along with Democratic State Treasurer Kate Marshall, also emphasized that it was vital that families are not split up by immigration laws and that any reform should be both practical and just.