Schumer: House's Piecemeal Immigration Strategy 'OK by Us'

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), a member of the Senate’s Gang of Eight, told CNN on Wednesday that he thinks the House GOP’s plan to approach immigration reform through piecemeal legislation is acceptable since the bills will simply be combined in conference.

“We would much prefer a big comprehensive bill but any way that the House can get there is okay by us,” Schumer said. “I actually am optimistic that we will get this done. I’ve had a lot of discussions with members of both parties in the House. Things are moving in the right direction.”

Schumer said House Republicans now appear more open than ever to granting amnesty to illegal aliens, and are going to use the strategy of passing a large group of bills addressing specific immigration issues to get to a conference with the Senate bill. “My initial reaction was the House wasn’t going to take up any bill,” Schumer said. “That would have been very bad, no bill. Now they’re doing it in pieces.”

Schumer added that he thinks “a couple of their pieces are very similar to ours.”

Schumer is the latest amnesty proponent to admit publicly the end game strategy is to get to a conference with the Senate bill by having the House pass a group of bills. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has all but promised the same thing, as have House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI).

Schumer’s fellow Gang of Eight member, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), publicly admitted the same goal a few weeks ago when he pleaded with leftwing activists at the Center for American Progress to help get them to conference.

Ultimately, former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ) claimed in an op-ed on Wednesday that this is all part of the “secret Republican strategy to secure amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants.”

“The names may have changed, but the tactics remain the same,” Hayworth wrote. “After decades of promises to address illegal immigration, we are once again hearing the same old nonsense from Republican politicians.” 

“Lawmakers vowing to act tough on border security while looking to secure amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants has become infuriatingly all-too-familiar,” he said.