Comprehensive immigration reform may arrive sooner than later as President Obama continues to pressure the “Gang of Eight” to produce legislation. Today, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told reporters that the Obama administration is “urgently awaiting” the next draft of a bill.
Napolitano unequivocally dismissed concerns that the lingering issue of border control was either stalling or would be separated from upcoming legislation by stating at the National League of Cities conference in DC that, “The notion that we have to secure our border first is kind of another way of saying ‘we don’t really want to deal with immigration reform,’ right?”
Napolitano reassured the conference-goers by adding that border control was effectively a non-issue after recent, unprecedented security measures. NBCNews.com reported that the current movement of illegal immigrants across the border is down to the lowest level in 40 years. “We haven’t seen these kinds of numbers since the early 1970s,” she said.
While nothing specific has been officially reported, recent rumors suggest that the bipartisan group of senators comprising the “Gang of Eight” are close to consensus on comprehensive immigration reform. “Now is the time when this issue rises to the top,” Napolitano said, referring to the political momentum pushing immigration reform to the forefront of the agenda. “[Obama] is urgently awaiting the product that emerges, hopefully sooner rather than later.”