Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y) met Wednesday with an unlikely voice in the debate over immigration legislation: Lou Dobbs.
Schumer, the chair of the Judiciary's subcommittee on immigration, cited his huddle with Dobbs—who sparked controversy as a CNN host with anti-immigration segments entitled "Exporting America," "Broken Borders" and "War on the Middle Class"—as an example of how Democrats are committed to moving forward on immigration reform in a bipartisan way.
"Yes, we are making good progress," Schumer said Thursday. "The progress that we were [making] in the fall is continuing now. We're meeting with all different kinds of groups, trying to get everybody together to come out for one bill. In fact, yesterday, I met with Lou Dobbs, who as many of you know, is changing his views on immigration."
The senior senator from New York faced a question over whether immigration is still a legislative priority, as President Barack Obama's State of the Union address failed to mention any initiatives on immigration reform.
Insisting that reform still will be passed, Schumer focused on finding a bipartisan way to push a bill through the Senate.
"Now I've said all along, even before last Tuesday with the Massachusetts election, we need a bipartisan bill, two Democrats and two Republicans to produce it. We're not there yet. We're still working on getting our Republicans, but we're talking to people who have a lot of interest and enthusiasm and our intention is to move forward," Schumer said.
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