Sen. Chuck Schumer: Amnesty Legislation by 'June or July'

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who co-wrote the Senate’s comprehensive immigration bill that passed last year, said he believes Congress will pass amnesty legislation in “June or July” of this year for President Barack Obama to sign.

“I want to let you in on a little secret. We are going to pass that bill and sign it into law this year,” Schumer said, according to the New York Daily News at an immigration call-in event the publication co-sponsored. “I believe, hopefully June or July, we will have an immigration bill – it may not be exactly the Senate bill – on the floor of the House. They will pass it. We will come to an agreement. They will put that bill on the President’s desk for President Obama to sign into law.”

Schumer, along with amnesty advocate Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), has said that this year would be the last chance for sweeping immigration reform legislation, which the Congressional Budget Office determined would lower the wages of American workers. Schumer has also suggested passing an amnesty bill that would not be implemented until Obama left office and extending amnesty to illegal immigrants who have been in the country since December 31, 2013.

Schumer made those remarks after momentum for amnesty legislation stalled when Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) blasted the GOP leadership’s “immigration principles” as amnesty, and the Republican leadership said they would not move on the bill until Obama could prove to them that he could enforce the country’s immigration laws.

The Obama administration, after intense pressure from pro-amnesty groups, is conducting an administrative review to reduce deportations even though the notion that Obama is the “deporter-in-chief” has been debunked. That has not stopped Republican leaders from signaling they are eager to push amnesty legislation in the coming months.

Last week, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), the GOP Conference Chair, said she hoped to get amnesty legislation to the House floor by August.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), who told donors that he was “hellbent” on passing amnesty legislation, mocked amnesty opponents in Congress last week. According to NBC 5 in Texas, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) “will soon introduce a bill that will establish a path to citizenship for the minor children of illegal immigrants and a guest worker program,” and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) told Roll Call that Republicans are “as close as we have ever been” in getting amnesty legislation and that they believe they “finally have the policy right.”

Passing amnesty this year, according to a Washington Post report, could put states like Arizona and Texas in play for Democrats in addition to making Americans less likely to support Republican candidates, as Breitbart News has noted.

Two national polls, conducted by NBC News/Wall Street Journal and ABC News/Washington Post, have found that a plurality of Americans are “less likely” to vote for candidates who support amnesty legislation.