The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-5 to approve of a final draft of an immigration bill that will head to the Senate floor for debate when legislators return from the Memorial Day recess, according to the Associated Press.
Senators praised themselves for working in a bi-partisan fashion in the drafting of the bill and in getting it to pass the Judiciary Committee. Three Republicans, Lindsey Graham, Jeff Flake and Orrin Hatch, voted along with the ten Democrats in support of the measure, according to the Associated Press.
"We've demonstrated to the United States Senate that we can all work together, Republicans and Democrats," Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told the Associated Press. "Now let's get out of this room and work together with the other members of the Senate, and with the other body (the House), and more importantly work with all Americans, and all those who wish to be Americans."
The bill met the approval of President Obama who said in a statement that the bill was "largely consistent with the principles of common-sense reform I have proposed and meets the challenge of fixing our broken immigration system."
Others were not so enthused with the version of the bill that made it out of the Judiciary Committee; in particular gay rights advocates were upset that a provision to protect same-sex couples was dropped from the final draft of the bill, according to the Washington Post.
Felipe Sousa-Rodriguez, co-director of GetEQUAL, blasted the Democratic Senators who worked on the bill in comments made to the Washington Post.
"Today it became clear that our so-called 'friends' don't have the courage or the spine to stand up for what's right," Sousa-Rodriguez said. Sousa-Rodriguez would go on to say that Democratic lawmakers are "content to buy into the false choice that Republicans created - holding a sorely-needed immigration bill hostage in order to cement inequality into law."
The immigration bill was passed only after Sen. Leahy removed an amendment allowing same-sex spouses and partners of U.S. citizens to become citizens in the same manner that traditionally married couples are allowed to, according to the Washington Post.
Sen. Charles Shumer, D-N.Y., desperately wanted to include the amendment but thought that the bill would have no chance of passing as a whole if it were included.
"This is one of the most excruciatingly difficult decisions that I have had to make in 30 plus years in public office," Shumer told the Washington Post. "I believe and desire that this is included in the final legislation... Not to do this is rank discrimination."
Shumer would go on to add that Republicans "made it perfectly clear in plain words and on multiple occasions that if this provision is added to the bill they will have no choice but to abandon our collective effort, and a once-in-a-generation effort to pass comprehensive immigration reform will be finished."
