House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said she would rather pass amnesty legislation than get her gavel back.
“It’s the biggest thing that we can do, and that’s why I’ve said to the speaker, to the press, to these groups, I would rather pass [a] comprehensive immigration reform bill than win the elections in November,” Pelosi told Politico. “There’s nothing we could accomplish in winning that would be as big as passing immigration reform.”
Politico noted that Pelosi has been traveling the country promoting immigration reform legislation and said she hoped a bill could pass by June or July. She ruled out the possibility of amnesty legislation being passed during the lame-duck session of Congress after the midterm elections.
Democrats have circulated a discharge petition for their bill, which is the Senate’s bill that the Congressional Budget Office determined would lower the wages of American workers with less stringent border security provisions, but it has failed to get the 218 signatures needed to force a vote.
Other Democrats like Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) have indicated that this year was the last chance to pass broad amnesty legislation.