Senator John McCain (R-AZ) has announced that he wants to revive the failed Gang of Eight amnesty bill and get it passed through Congress. This is the same thing Democrats started pushing back in February. Arizona Central reports:
A week after his dramatic call for bipartisanship on Capitol Hill, Sen. John McCain says he wants to revive a long-standing attempt to reform the nation’s immigration system when he returns to Washington.
Before leaving Washington for treatment for brain cancer, McCain, R-Ariz., said he broached the idea with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. The two collaborated on unsuccessful immigration legislation in 2013 as part of the bipartisan effort known as the “Gang of Eight.”
President Donald Trump’s goal of building a U.S.-Mexico border wall might provide an opening for a bigger bargain on the issue, McCain said.
“Immigration reform is one of the issues I’d like to see resolved,” McCain told The Arizona Republic in a Thursday interview. “I’ve got to talk to him (Schumer) about when would be the best time. I think there are all kinds of deals to be made out there. I really do.”
His goal remains a long shot in the Trump era, with Senate Majority Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., running the Senate and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., leading the House of Representatives.
Even at times when the White House was friendly to the idea, success on the issue has proved elusive for McCain, who has worked on comprehensive immigration reform bills for more than 10 years. But while former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama wanted immigration reform, Trump has appeared hostile to any approach that would balance border-security investments with a pathway for citizenship for immigrants without legal status who have settled in the United States.
Who knows what McCain is thinking since the Gang of Eight amnesty bill failed when Democrats controlled the Senate and there was a Democrat in the White House.