Schumer Urges House Dems to Push for Discharge Petition on Immigration

In comments that put illegal immigrants above Americans who were murdered in Benghazi, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Thursday called on House Democrats to press for a discharge petition to force the House to vote on amnesty legislation. 

If Democrats and Republicans get 218 signatures on a discharge petition, a bill could come to the floor. House Republicans have been trying–to no avail–to get signatures on a discharge petition to get House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to allow a vote on a bill to establish a Select Committee to investigate the Benghazi scandal in which four Americans were murdered, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.

“The idea that’s begun circulating, to do a discharge petition on immigration reform in the House, is a good one and I would urge House Democrats to take it up,” Schumer told Politico, saying such a petition would be an “appropriate remedy.”

He then claimed he believed that a “majority of the House supports immigration reform” and cited the support of big-business groups and “religious groups” that have been financed by the likes of George Soros.

Schumer was echoing the sentiments of liberal Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, who is a denizen of the Beltway cocktail circuit. Dionne suggested in his column that Boehner’s decision to join 27 Republicans and 193 Democrats to allow a clean debt ceiling hike with no reductions in spending presented a model to move amnesty legislation forward. 

Last Sunday, Schumer said that amnesty legislation should be passed this year and not implemented until 2017, after President Barack Obama leaves office. He also said that illegal immigrants who came to the country before 2014 should be eligible for amnesty. As Breitbart News has noted, amnesty advocates want to force Congress to pass legislation this year–even with angry, confrontational, and in-your-face tactics—because those like Schumer and Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) have said that amnesty legislation would not pass the next Congress.