Senate Passes Immigration Reform

On Thursday, the Senate voted 68-32 to pass the bipartisan Gang of Eight immigration reform legislation.

The legislation would create a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States and enact the toughest border security in the country's history. The compromise also proposes important improvements to the detention system and immigration courts, which are currently majorly flawed, and some argue, corrupt.

The bill now moves onto the House, where Republican leadership has threatened it will not take up the Senate overhaul, and will instead choose to focus on much narrower legislation that would not provide a path to citizenship.

The supposed fiscal conservatives might want to consider that Congressional Budget Office found that Senate measure will save the U.S. $197 billion in the long run.