A bipartisan group of senators on Monday said the political landscape for immigration reform has changed, boosting their hopes for passing a bill.
Recent elections have changed his party’s view on immigration, said Sen. John McCain, a Republican from Arizona who led an unsuccessful push to reform the nation’s immigration laws in 2006 and 2007.
McCain said his party’s leaders and strategists are convinced they need to agree to some measure of reform to boost the party’s image among Hispanic voters, who voted overwhelmingly for President Obama in November.
“As I’ve stated before, elections, elections,” said McCain, who along with seven colleagues spoke out at a Monday afternoon Capitol Hill press conference about a set of bipartisan principles for reform they had released a day earlier.
“The Republican Party is losing the support of our Hispanic citizens and we realize there are many issues in which we think we are in agreement with our Hispanic citizens but this is a preeminent issue for those citizens,” said McCain, his party’s standard-bearer in the 2008 presidential election.
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