Ohio Senate debate: Vance hammers immigration issue, Ryan says he disagrees with some Biden border policies
In the Senate Wednesday, the immigration debate is heating up a notch.
A day after Nevada’s Democratic candidate for president, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, criticized Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell for voting “yes” on a Republican-sponsored “Gang of Eight” immigration bill and declaring that he “d[idn’t] want to be on record” opposing a “humane” approach to immigration, Sen. Dean Heller attacked the bill by pointing out his own “prior opposition to a pathway to citizenship” that he “said was a flawed, poorly drafted bill,” according to one of the senators.
A full day later, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) joined with McConnell to endorse a bipartisan, bipartisan “Gang of Eight” immigration reform bill – a bill that would not include a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. This bill, as described by those supporting it, included a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants as part of a program of “further investment” in the nation’s border control and nation’s immigration system.
Toomey called the bipartisan Senate approach a “step in the right direction,” while Schumer noted that the Senate bill included a “comprehensive immigration reform proposal” that he felt would have “resulted in comprehensive immigration reform,” which he said was a “better path forward.”
The Senate Republican leader was asked if he was satisfied that the Senate bill contained an approach that would not include citizenship for immigrants – and whether he supported the bipartisan Senate approach. Here are his responses:
Sen. McConnell: “Well, we just finished a bipartisan bill. I voted for it, but I said, ‘If it gets to the floor’ — the president has a veto pen, and I’m gonna use it as a threat with respect to the bill — ‘I would not vote for this bill,’ and that’s exactly
