We'll see what is going to happen when the Congress starts in late January.
If we see Senators Schumer and Graham introduce their immigration bill in January (more likely in February), then we'll have a decent chance for a debate and an attempt to pass one. It will also depend on the Democratic leadership. If they just introduce their bill and do nothing like the DREAM Act and the House immigration bill, we are out of luck.
First, the House and the Senator will return before January 20th. They'll work on passing a jobs bill and merging the health care reform bills if what Politico has reported is correct. The jobs bill won't take as much time as the helath care bill (assuming the Democratic leadership does not have a difficulty finding enough votes), and the Democrats will try to pass it before the State of Union speech. So, that will take most of January after their session begins. The process of merging the health care bills might take January and about half of February if they do it quickly. If they begin to work on energy or financial reform after passing a final Senate bill and haven't introduced an immigration bill in the Senate by then, I seriously doubt the prospect of any kind of immigration reform. Time's running out for the issue of immigration. Unlike other issues, everyone does not want to tackle it too close to the election date. Everything (the passage of an immigration reform bill) should be done by April after a Senate immigration bill is introduced by at least the end of February.
Last edited by skysla; 12-23-2009 at 09:00 PM..