Immigration Reform 2013 News: High Ranking Democrats, Republicans Weigh in On Obama-Backed Immigration Bill

As the full Senate prepares to hear the highly-debated immigration reform bill, Democrats and Republicans are weighing in on the legislation.

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., told Univision this week in an interview that while he is more optimistic on the chances of the immigration bill passing, the number of votes needed in the Senate to pass the bill still falls short.

"We don't currently have 60 votes identified in the Senate," Menendez said. "We need to add more votes on the floor. That means that the community in your state, in every state, should be contacting your state's two U.S. senators saying that they want comprehensive immigration reform, that they are going to judge their political future based on this vote. And if we do this, both in the Senate and, later, with the members of the House of Representatives, we can achieve the victory that we want."

The interview will air Sunday on "Al Punto."

The bill's passage in the Senate Judiciary Committee was thanks in part to the bipartisan support the bill received from key Republicans such as Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Marco Rubio ,R-Fla., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. However, with support from the right wing, there also comes opposition from GOP senators such as Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.

Sens. Sessions and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, were among the most outspoken senators against much of the language in the bill during the amendment-adding process in committee. As ABC News.com notes, Sessions had one amendment proposed that would have restricted the number of new legal immigrants at 33 million; it was voted down 17-1.

Noting that the passage of the bill in committee was a good first step, Sen. Menendez still added that there was still "a lot of work ahead" regarding getting the votes in the Senate as well as the GOP-controlled House.

"We want to push this bill forward with the most positive votes we can find, more than 60, the 60 we need to be able to pass it here in the Senate so we can put pressure on the House," Menendez said. "And the House depends on the Republicans who control the House, and the House speaker, Speaker Boehner, will have to decide how he will proceed. But I want to have a good vote in the Senate so we send the message that the Republicans and the Democrats are together in favor of immigration reform."

Meanwhile, negotiators in the House said they reached a deal last week on an immigration bill of their own, although those negotiations have hit a snag in the last week, with conservatives in the House opposed on a pathway to citizenship to millions of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S.

And while Republicans have been divided within their own party on the need to pass immigration reform to get a better standing with the growing and powerful Latino electorate, Rep. Steven King, R-Iowa, told CBS News recently that supporting immigration reform would not help the GOP make any inroads with Hispanic voters. 

King said that President Obama was re-elected in November thanks largely to President Reagan's Immigration Reform and Control Act, which granted millions of Hispanic immigrants legal status.

"If the theory of those who believe they can reverse the trend of Hispanic vote, if their theory is correct," he said, "if they can provide amnesty and somebody's going to benefit from that, then they have to admit that Ronald Reagan's signature on the '86 amnesty act brought about Barack Obama's election."