Senator Reid said he has the votes for immigration reform this year

June 10 2009, 09:20 AM
Washington, June 10 (EFE) .- The leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Harry Reid, said today in an interview with Efe that "there arithmetic" for approving an immigration bill this year that "out of the shadow "on undocumented immigrants. Reid encourages the Senate since the reforms of health, energy and immigration, in that order, are the three main priorities of President Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress this year, and is convinced that will be approved despite objections Republican . "The Republicans are doing this as well as trying to do with the health issue: maintaining the status quo. Acknowledge that the 1986 immigration law has not worked well, and we need to reform the system," Reid said from his office in the broad Senate. The senator from Nevada referred to the 1986 law that once gave an "amnesty" for some three million undocumented. Opponents of reform have turned this law to insist that it did not stop illegal immigration in the U.S., now estimated at some 12 million illegal immigrants. Reid said he was convinced that, at least in the Senate, his party has the arithmetic to approve immigration reform this year. In the Senate, it requires 60 votes out of 100 seats, while in the House of Representatives, supporters of the reform required a total of 218 of 435. "I can not speak for the House of Representatives, but I can give the mathematics in the Senate and I think there is no doubt that we can approve it," he said. At present, Democrats and independents who usually vote with them, added 59 seats in the Senate, since a federal court must still rule on the winner in the general of Minnesota, where Democrat Al Franken and Republican Norm Coleman. So the Democrats have one vote less than they need to prevent dilatory tactics of the opposition. Reid tried to minimize the skepticism that is on the reform among some moderate Democrats in court, facing the legislative elections of 2010. He added that even if legislation does not have the support of all democrats, the obstacles he had overcome the failed reform of 2007. "Say you lose 12 votes (Democrats), that leaves 48. But I am sure you will find 12 Republicans (who support the reform), I have no doubt that this is the case," he said. "We do not have the financial nor human resources to deport undocumented immigrants, as some want. Immigration is a source of strength in our country: here we bring waves of people who excel in education and the labor force, and that is good, "he said. "We must remove them from the shadows so that when someone comes out to buy milk for her child, is not subject to an arrest. We need a clean slate, a new program on immigration," he said. For Reid, a reform bill should include elements to strengthen security along the borders with Mexico and Canada, and require recipients to pay fines, learn English, are current with their taxes, have no criminal records and "put at the end of the row. " Are, in fact, almost all the elements contained in the 2007 immigration reform, which failed due to lack of consensus between Democrats and Republicans on an issue as volatile and polarized as immigration. Reid said so well, and understand intimately the migration phenomenon in the U.S., noting that his father emigrated from Russia to Lithuania and his mother-in-law, and his grandmother was born in England. During the election campaign, the president Barack Obama pledged to push immigration reform in his first year in office. On Wednesday, Obama will meet at the White House with Republican and Democratic leaders of Congress for a "common ground" and a strategy to achieve reform. That meeting had been scheduled for last Monday but was postponed for "scheduling conflicts" as the White House, which has not yet disclosed the list of participants. EFE