Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid at a press conference this afternoon:
QUESTION: On immigration for just a moment…
REID: Oh, my favorite subject.
QUESTION: You’ll be glad to talk about…
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: The chances of bringing this back — when it comes to an issue that’s so divisive like that, does that come down to the point of how, whether an issue has to ripen and maybe some time, it’s just not the political climate yet to try that or things could change by the end of the year.
REID: I think it’s going to very, very difficult to deal with immigration this year. It won’t be dealt with this year.
What I’d like to do is there are certain parts of that immigration bill that I think are very essential. The agricultural workers bill is extremely important. It was part of our overall bill. The DREAM Act is important. I’d like to do that.
So maybe what we could do before the end of the year is do some pieces of immigration. But coming here for another immigration debate on everything, it won’t happen this year. Maybe next year; likely it won’t happen until we get another president.