Reid on Immigration Reform: 'If We Go to Conference, We Will Win'

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Friday that if House Republicans end up sending their collection of immigration bills to a conference with the Senate, Democrats and illegal immigration advocates would win.

“If we go to conference, we would win,” Reid told a Nevada radio station.

Reid’s comments are the latest in a long line of Senate Democrats and House Republicans openly stating that the plan for amnesty for all of America’s illegal aliens rests in the House passing a group of immigration bills, then going to a conference with the Senate “Gang of Eight” bill.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), a member of the Gang of Eight, said on Wednesday that the House GOP piecemeal strategy is “OK by us” because the Senate would combine all the bills in a 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’s fellow Gang of Eight member, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), also recently pleaded with left-wing activists at the Center for American Progress, asking them to help get pro-amnesty lawmakers to a conference. “Get us to a conference,” Menendez said. “In a conference, we can negotiate the notion of bringing all those bills together and get to common ground.”

Conservatives are increasingly concerned that any conference between the House and Senate will be dominated by supporters of amnesty for the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants. The final bill, they believe, would look much more like the Senate Gang of 8 bill than any individual bills passed by the House. 

With his remarks, Sen. Reid seems to agree with that assessment.