US reaffirmed its commitment on citizenship issue of illegal migrants

Washington: Amid a furore over a leaked Obama administration plan the White House has reaffirmed its commitment to to give America’s 11 million illegal immigrants, a permanent citizenship,
The Obama administration has circulated the draft legislation that would put the illegal immigrants on the citizenship after about eight years and would require them to go to the back of the line behind legal applicants within various government agencies, according to various media reports.

President Barack Obama’s leaked plan evoked a strong reaction from the Republican members of the ‘Gang of Eight’ Republican and Democratic senators working on a bipartisan immigration legislation,

But Chuck Schumer, a Democratic member of the ‘Gang of Eight’ said Sunday he was not “upset” with the leaked draft of Obama’s own immigration bill.

At the same time, however, Schumer said real change will only occur if revamping immigration policy is done in a bipartisan fashion.

“It’s obvious that if a Democrat, the president or anyone else, puts out what they want on their own, it’s going to be different than when you have a bipartisan agreement,” he said.

The White House, however, contended that the administration was not using the leak to float its own proposals.

Responding to Rubio’s response, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said on ABC that the White House has been “talking with all the parties to the ‘Gang of Eight’ effort in the Senate.”

“Let’s make sure (the White House bill) doesn’t have to be proposed and make sure the Gang of Eight makes good progress on these efforts as much as they say they want to,” he said