The Senate on Thursday passed an overhaul of U.S. immigration laws that would clear the way for millions of undocumented residents to have a chance at citizenship, attract workers from all over the world and devote unprecedented resources for security along the U.S.-Mexico border, politico.com reported.
The vote was 68-32. Fourteen Republicans crossed the aisle to vote with all Democrats in favor. Thursday's vote now puts the onus of immigration reform on the Republican-led House, where leaders have been resistant to the Senate legislation.
"The strong bipartisan vote we took is going to send a message across the country, it's going to send a message to the other end of the Capitol as well," Democratic New York Senator Chuck Schumer said. "The bill has generated a level of support that we believe will be impossible for the House to ignore."
If Congress passes immigration reform, it would make good on a promise from President Barack Obama and likely become his most significant policy achievement in his second term, news reports said. .
"The bipartisan bill that passed today was a compromise," Obama said. "By definition, nobody got everything they wanted. Not Democrats. Not Republicans. Not me. But the Senate bill is consistent with the key principles for commonsense reform that I - and many others - have repeatedly laid out."
The Gang of Eight fell just short of an ambitious, 70-vote mark set by some of its members, who had believed a broad bipartisan majority would force the Republican-led House move on its bill. Last-minute efforts to lure Republican Sens. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and Rob Portman of Ohio failed - negotiators viewed Chambliss's demands as too onerous and Portman's request for a vote on toughening E-Verify provisions got snagged in the procedural rules of the Senate.
