Key Democrat Chides President and Senators on Pace of Immigration Bill

As the Senate Judiciary Committee held its second hearing this week on overhauling the nation’s immigration laws, the committee’s chairman issued a frustrated plea for speeding up the overall pace of producing actual legislation.

A group of eight senators, four Democrats and four Republicans, has been working in private on producing a bipartisan bill, and their goal was to present something by the end of this month. But now, the group is on pace to release their legislation after the upcoming two-week Easter recess in Congress, sometime during the second week of April.

Part of the calculation is political â€" the senators didn’t want to unveil their legislation just to see Congress break for two weeks, creating a situation where members would likely return to their home states and face potentially hostile constituents upset about the immigration proposal.

But Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and the committee chairman, is not pleased, chiding President Obama and the bipartisan Senate group in a news release.

“For months I have urged the president to send his proposal for comprehensive immigration reform to the Senate,” Mr. Leahy said. “I understand he has delayed releasing it at the request of a few senators who are engaged in secret, closed-door discussions on their own proposal and who committed to completing it by the beginning of March. That deadline and others have come and gone.”

Mr. Leahy went on to express disappointment that his committee will have no immigration overhaul to consider this month.

“Without legislative language, there is nothing for the Judiciary Committee to consider this week at our mark up,” he said. “The upcoming recess period would have allowed all members of the committee and the American people to review the legislation. Now that process and our work will be delayed at least a month.”

Mr. Leahy added: “Because we do not yet have legislative language to debate, the Senate Judiciary Committee will not be able to report a comprehensive immigration bill by the end of April, which was my goal.”

In addition to the Senate group, a bipartisan group in the House is also working on producing immigration legislation, which they are expected to release shortly. Similarly, Mr. Obama has said he has his own immigration plan, which he is prepared to introduce if Congress does not act quickly enough.