New York Senator Charles Schumer, who has been leading the fight on immigration reform, is confident the ‘Gang of Eight’ four Republican and four Democratic senators will reach a deal this week.
The bill, if also passed in the House and signed by President Obama, would have major impact on the estimated 50,000 Irish undocumented in the U.S. as well as possibly positive consequences for future flow of Irish to America.
Schumer’s Republican counterpart Senator Lindsey Graham stated he was confident that 70 out of 100 senators would vote for it.
Major stumbling blocks have been surmounted and a big victory in the senate would place massive pressure on the GOP controlled House to also pass a bill.
"All of us have said that there will be no agreement until the eight of us agree to a big, specific bill, but hopefully we can get that done by the end of the week," said Schumer, who is leading efforts by the eight senators to draft the legislation. "That's what we're on track to do."
Schumer spoke on CBS "Face the Nation" with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who said problems remained.
White House senior advisor Dan Pfeiffer said a deal looked likely.
"What they are looking at and what has been talked about in the Gang of Eight proposal is 100 percent consistent with what the president is doing so we feel very good about it," Pfeiffer said. "And they are looking at it in the right way."
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham stated that a deal had to be worked out on border security.
"We are going to secure that border and it will be tied to a pathway to citizenship or there will be no deal," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., another negotiator on the bill, said Sunday.
Graham, who sounded optimistic overall, predicted the bill would pass the 100-member Senate with 70 votes in favor.
Reps. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., a key figure in the house and Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., also sounded optimistic.
"I am very, very optimistic that the House of Representatives is going to have a plan that is going to be able to go to a conference with the Senate in which we're going to be able to resolve this," Gutierrez said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."
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