The bipartisan immigration-reform bill will likely become law — despite its chief author Sen. Marco Rubio not fully committing to it as yet, according to Byron York, chief political correspondent for the Washington Examiner.
Marco Rubio is saying nice things … but committing to none of them, if you notice. He hasn't even said he's going to vote for his own bill," York told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
"It's a bizarre situation where you have the senator — who's a sponsor and author of this bill — who will not say that he'll vote for it unless somebody else changes it. It's just odd."
On Sunday, Rubio told ABC News' "This Week" that about 95 percent of the bill — put together by four Republican and four Democratic senators dubbed the "Gang of Eight" is in “perfect shape.
But he remains worried whether the legislation contains adequate border security measures.
"The vast majority of Americans, the vast majority of conservative Republicans, are prepared to support immigration reform, but only if we can ensure that we're not going to have another wave of illegal immigration in the future," Rubio said.
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York, author of “The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy,” predicted there will be some amendments to the proposed legislation.
"But the bill that comes out of the full Senate will probably be virtually unchanged in its structure," he said.
"The structure being legalization of the 11 million [undocumented immigrants] pretty much immediately, a plan to increase border security later on, the adjustment of the 11 million to permanent legal status green card status, and then the citizenship."
York said he believes passage is assured because the bill requires 60 to pass, and the numbers seem assured.
"There are 54 Democrats in the Senate, there are four Republicans on the Gang, that's 58," he said.
"Sen. Kelly Ayotte, a Republican, has already said she's going to vote for it, that's 59, and there's probably more than one other who will too."
The group of "Gang of Eight" senators consists of Rubio and his GOP colleagues, Jeff Flake and John McCain of Arizona, and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina; and Democratic Sens. Michael Bennet of Colorado, Richard Durbin of Illinois, Bob Menendez of New Jersey, and Chuck Schumer of New York.
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