Senate immigration reform bill lacks enough votes to pass, senator says

Despite bipartisan progress in both houses of Congress on a sweeping overhaul of the nation's immigration laws, one of the key senators involved in negotiations warned supporters not to count their chickens before they hatch during an interview with Univision set to air on Sunday.

"We don't currently have 60 votes identified in the Senate," said Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., on "Al Punto" with Jorge Ramos. "We need to add more votes on the floor."

The immigration reform bill drafted by Menendez and seven other members of the "gang of eight" easily cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday by a 15-3 vote, an encouraging sign for reform proponents. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., will bring the bill to the floor in early June. His Republican counterpart, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said he will not block the bill from being introduced on the floor, but opponents of the legislation will still have the opportunity to filibuster the legislation and require 60 votes for final passage.

The bill, in broad strokes, would strengthen border security and enact safeguards to prevent employers from hiring undocumented immigrants. It would also modernize the U.S. visa system to attract more highly skilled immigrants and provide an earned path to citizenship to many of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in America.

Democrats have a 55-vote majority in the Senate, and a huge majority of those 55 senators are likely to end up supporting the reform proposal, though a few members facing tough 2014 re-election fights in more conservative states might be tempted to abandon ship.

Among Republicans, the level of support is more difficult to gauge. The four GOP members of the "gang of eight" are likely to support the bill, absent any dramatic changes, and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, added his own support by voting to pass the bill through the Judiciary Committee, though he cautioned that his vote for final passage is contingent on the fate of several amendments he plans to introduce during the floor debate.

Menendez's signal that lawmakers are still hunting support to surmount that 60-vote threshold offered a bit of a reality check for supporters of the legislation, who have previously expressed a desire to pass the bill with a far more robust 70-vote majority.

The hope, proponents say, is that a broad, bipartisan base of support in the Senate would offer cover for members of the more conservative House to support immigration reform in their own chamber.

Menendez echoed that reasoning on Univision. "We want to push this bill forward with the most positive votes we can find ... so we can put pressure on the House," he said. "I want to have a good vote in the Senate so we can send the message that Republicans and Democrats are together in favor of immigration reform."

He asked those watching to convey their support directly to legislators, saying, "If we do this, both in the Senate and, later, with the House of Representatives, we can achieve the victory that we want."

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The House, despite demonstrating progress of its own, remains a source of concern for supporters of immigration reform. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has said that the House will "work its will" on immigration reform, but it won't simply pass the Senate bill as-is.

While a separate bipartisan "gang of eight" House members announced an "agreement in principle" earlier in May on the parameters of their own reform proposal, outstanding disagreements remain on border security and the ability of undocumented immigrants to access entitlement programs like Medicaid and Obamacare.

Boehner has also deputized two House committees, Judiciary and Homeland Security, to move forward with their own immigration reform proposals, voicing a desire to move the bill "through regular order."

With all of the moving parts, Boehner said during a press conference on Sunday, the only certainty is that the House will act in some way to reform the nation's immigration laws. Whether that eventual product can be squared with the Senate's legislation in a way that earns majority support in both houses of Congress and a signature from President Obama remains to be seen.

"We're not going to be stampeded by the White House or stampeded by the president," Boehner said. "The Senate is working its will - a lot of good work that's gone on over there, but the House will work its will."

"Don't ask me how," he added, "because if I knew, I'd certainly tell you."