Via @ tv.msnbc.com
Senator John McCain isn’t ready to concede that House Republicans won’t pass real immigration reform. But he is watching the clock.

“It’s very important that we try to act before the end of this year,” McCain said at a town hall in Mesa, Arizona, on Tuesday. Waiting any longer will run into campaign season.  But given looming battles over funding the government and increasing the debt ceiling, passing immigration legislation before 2014 may be unrealistic.

“I remain guardedly optimistic that our friends in the House of Representatives will agree to their legislative process and then we can get to conference,” McCain, who was joined by fellow Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake, told the audience. He cited the array of interests backing reform, including major business groups, labor unions, and evangelical organizations, as evidence of its momentum.
House leaders are moving forward with a series of bills on border security and visa programs, but they’ve yet to decide how–and whether–to offer legal status and a path to citizenship to the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in America today. McCain is still hoping the House will support a citizenship component in a final deal.

“I don’t accept your premise that the House of Representatives will absolutely reject a path to citizenship,” McCain told a reporter at the forum. “I think we’ll know more in two or three months.”

The Senate bill would require undocumented immigrants to meet a variety of requirements, including paying a fine and learning English, in order to obtain citizenship. The process would take at least 13 years for most eligible applicants. But among House Republicans, it’s not clear that the caucus supports even limited legal status for undocumented immigrants. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, chair of the House Judiciary Committee overseeing immigration legislation, recently suggested that even immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children should not get a new path to citizenship. Continue Reading @ Mccain Stubbornly Believes the House can pass immigration reform
Benjy Sarlin, @benjysarlin