Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Monday's ruling that found parts of Arizona's immigration law unconstitutional shows that Congress needs to lead on immigration reform rather than the states.
"The Supreme Court offered yet another affirmation that a long-term fix for a broken immigration system must come from Congress, and not from the states," Reid said on the Senate floor.
He also said the conclusion means it's time for the two parties to come together and work on a comprehensive immigration bill. Reid then outlined his vision of what an immigration bill could look like.
"It's time for them to work with us for a reasonable solution, one that continues to secure our borders, punishes unscrupulous employers who exploit immigrants and undercut American wages, improves our dysfunctional legal immigration system and finally requires the 11 million people who are undocumented to register with the government, pay fines, taxes, learn English, and then they don't go to the front of the line, they go to the back of the line."
However, Reid said Republicans have been less interested in an immigration bill, and instead seem content to let their presidential candidate set the terms of debate on the issue. He criticized Mitt Romney for calling Arizona's law a "model" for the United States, now that parts of it have been struck down.
He also argued that Democrats have been trying for years to find a permanent solution, only to have their ideas blocked by Republicans.
"We've done everything that is humanly possible to pass comprehensive immigration reform," he said. "We've been trying to do it for years.
"You can't blame Democrats for not passing a bipartisan immigration bill when they're the ones who brought the bill."
On Monday, the Supreme Court upheld the part of the Arizona law that allows law enforcement officers to check whether people are lawful immigrants, but rejected three other parts requiring legal immigrants to carry work papers, making it a crime to employ illegal aliens and letting police arrest illegal aliens.
