The Gang of Eight, a Bi-partisan group was formed on 28th January, 2013 in the United States to come up with one profound immigration reform bill that can fix current broken immigration system and highlight some critical immigration issues like Border Security, illegal immigrants, work permits, deportations, etc.
It has eight members, four from Republican Party and four from Democratic Party. On April 26, 2013, the Gang of Eight members introduced the S.744 bill, a long awaited immigration reform bill’s Senate version, in the US Senate and were passed in the Senate with 68-32 votes. It is known as “Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act”. It comprised many critical issues of immigration reform. However, House Republicans criticized by saying that it was much liberal to the undocumented immigrants and called it as “Awful”.
It was never brought in the House for discussion or debate despite of rallies, hunger strikes and protests around the nation by immigration advocates and undocumented immigrants. President Obama urged Republicans many a times to vote in the House, but it never happened.
In June, 2014, President announced that he will use his exclusive executive action right to make some significant immigration reform in the current immigration system. Due to the upcoming November elections and consistent requests from Democrats, Obama has postponed its action till elections are over.
