Immigration reform supporters have a new ally — the environmental lobby. The Sierra Club’s board voted Wednesday to support comprehensive immigration reform, POLITICO has learned. The backing from the nation’s oldest environmental group is a major shift that could help immigration reform supporters gain momentum as they try to push the measure through the Senate. It is another sign that some of the historical opponents to overhauling the country’s immigration laws, like evangelicals, are switching sides in this controversial debate.
Two drafters of the Senate’s bipartisan immigration bill believe they can achieve the impossible in today’s fractious Congress: convince majorities of both Republicans and Democrats in the upper chamber to support the proposal. “Maybe this is hopeful, but it would be wonderful if we could get a majority on both sides,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), a leading Democrat in the “Gang of Eight,” told reporters at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. “I think it’s very doable,” added Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), a top Republican in the “Gang.”
A former cabinet secretary under President George W. Bush took apart a main talking point that conservatives have used to oppose immigration reform. Speaking at the Hispanic Leadership Network conference, former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez addressed the notion, oft-repeated on the right, that immigrants “take jobs away from Americans.”
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