Policy

Senate To Debate Immigration Reform

Bipartisan measure faces a battle

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By a wide margin, the Senate voted Thursday to formally begin debating an historic overhaul to the nation's immigration laws that would allow those currently residing in the United States without documentation a pathway to  citizenship. 

Senators voted 82 to 15 on a procedural question that essentially opened an immigration debate set to dominate the upper chamber through the Fourth of July holiday. A handful of Republicans joined with most Democrats in support of opening the debate over legislation crafted by a bipartisan group of senators known as the "Gang of Eight." Their legislation is regarded as the best chance to win comprehensive immigration reform since 2007, when a similar reform effort sputtered in Congress.