Even despite the continued intransigence of the Republican Party when it comes to the issue of immigration reform, Harry Reid, the Senate Majority leader, is still more than hopeful that the House of Representatives are going to end up passing a bill for comprehensive reform.
On Tuesday Reid told a local paper that he believes the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, will “cave in” on the issue, ABC News is reporting. “I think there’s going to be so much pressure on the House that they’ll have to pass it,” Reid informed the editorial board of the Las Vegas Sun, pointing out that whatever the House of Representatives does the issue is not just going to go away.
“We have 11 million people who are not going to be sent back to their country of origin,” Reid pointed out. “They can’t do that. They can’t do it fiscally. They can’t do it physically. It’s nearly impossible.” Last summer an immigration bill was passed by the Senate but there has been no action on the bill by the House of Representatives. Despite the inaction Boehner has claimed that some sort of immigration bill will be forthcoming.
Boehner has recently hired the former director of immigration policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, Rebecca Tallent, with his press secretary Michael Steel having told the Washington Post that the Speaker remains hopeful that common sense, step-by-step immigration reform can still be achieved.