Bipartisan Immigration Bill Introduced by Bennet, Group of 8 Hits Senate Floor

The United States Senate today voted to begin consideration of the bipartisan immigration bill introduced by Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet and the ‘Group of 8.’ The bill includes a tough but fair path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants, secures the border and makes reforms to an outdated visa system to ensure businesses have access to a workforce with the skills they need while also providing important protections to prevent abuse and the undercutting of American workers and salaries.

“Today’s vote marks the next step in what has been a transparent, constructive, and deliberate process,” Bennet said. “We have a golden opportunity to rise above politics and pass a commonsense, bipartisan bill that will fix a broken immigration system that is bad for our families and bad for our economy. I look forward to working with Republicans and Democrats to make productive changes to improve the bill and reaffirm that we are nation that respects the rule of law and a nation of immigrants.

Bennet and the Group of 8 introduced the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 in April following several months of discussions and negotiations with a diverse group of stakeholders. The bill underwent several hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee preceding a three-week markup, where committee members considered hundreds of amendments. The proposal was voted out of committee by a bipartisan tally of 13-5.

The Group of 8 announced its plans to work on immigration reform in January when it unveiled the framework for a bipartisan bill to fix our broken immigration system. That framework included bipartisan agreements on border security, visa reform, law enforcement, and a tough but fair path to citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States.