Compromise Aids Immigration Reform

Congress will move forward on a long-stalled illegal immigration reform bill this week because negotiators have agreed to drop a controversial provision that would allow states to prohibit the children of illegal immigrants from attending public schools.

The agreement is expected to be announced today in a meeting of the House-Senate negotiating committee, convened to reconcile differences in the chambers’ separate versions of the immigration bill, GOP sources said.

The public schools amendment, sponsored by Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Calif., was included in the House version of the bill but not the Senate.

Republican sources said Gallegly and other anti-immigration hard-liners have agreed to drop the provision to save the overall bill.