On June 27, 2013, the U.S. Senate passed a sweeping immigration bill designed to surgically overhaul the country's immigration system and spend over 30 billion to secure the southwest border with Mexico. Fourteen Republican senators joined all Democrats to pass the bill on a 68-32 vote.

This bill would not provide “amnesty” as many undocumented people believe, but is meant to clear a path to citizenship after several years wait for many of the 11 to 12 million unauthorized immigrants. The bill also calls for the following changes:

1) expand the federal E-Verify program nationwide, requiring all U.S. business owners to use it to check the immigration status of all new hires within four years.

2) require the United States to begin fingerprinting all foreigners departing U.S. airports to better track who's left the country and who has stayed past the expiration of their visas.

3) revamp the legal immigration system to increase the number of temporary work visas for foreigners trained in science, technology, engineering and mathematics

4) increase work visas for foreigners who work in the agricultural industry

5) add a new class of visa would be created to bring in people to work lower-skilled jobs in construction, retail, hospitality and insurance.

However, in the GOP-controlled House, Republican leaders vamped up the noise in opposition to the Senate bill. They are in favor of a piecemeal approach to addressing the nation's immigration system instead of broad sweeping legislation.

House Speaker John Boehner, indicated that “the House is not going to take up and vote on whatever the Senate passes… And for any legislation, including a (final bill), to pass the House, it's going to have to be a bill that has the support of the majority of our members."

Leading Republican lawmakers have made clear that there is no GOP interest in a bill that includes a pathway to citizenship for these 11 million undocumented immigrants, until the US- Mexico border is secure. When will the border be secure? Who knows, maybe never.

Therefore, anyone who has been sitting back and waiting for a big broad amnesty program similar to that of the 1980’s, should not hold his breath. This bill will provide nothing near amnesty. Furthermore, given the state of gridlock in Congress, it may never happen. Many House members, GOP and Democrat, have more to fear from local voter backlash than from the national supporters of this reform. In the end, after all the GOP surgeries are completed the House’s representation of immigration reform will be a mere limbless, lifeless cadaver, totally unlike the Senate’s newborn baby.