Senate Gang Holds Together; House Gang Mulls Split

As the Senate Judiciary Committee proceeds with “mark-up” of the comprehensive immigration bill, the bipartisan “Gang of 8” who authored the bill has largely been able to preserve it through the first two rounds focusing on border security and non-immigrant visa changes.  Meanwhile, in the House of Representatives, Republican members of the group that has been negotiating a comprehensive immigration reform bill indicated today that if agreement was not reached by this week, that they intended to walk away from the negotiations with their Democratic counterparts.  Such a step would likely either result in piecemeal legislation in the House or a decidedly more “conservative” comprehensive bill.  But it could also just be a negotiating ploy to move Democratic negotiators from their positions.  We’ll see what  happens.