Immigration Reform 2013 - News Update: Right-Wing Advocacy Group Supports Reform, Says Bill Will Create New Jobs

The divide between the right wing and the left over immigration reform has been fraught for years, with Democrats demanding a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers (i.e. illegal immigrants who came to the states as children) and Republicans expressing anxiety about the porousness of the US's southern border with Mexico and the stress an influx of new citizens could put on an already struggling economy.

Not so fast.

Signs of bipartisanship are slowly but surely coming. In June, the Senate passed an the "gang of eight" immigration reform bill by a vote of 68 to 32, with all Democratic senators and 14 Republicans joining together to push legislation through. That bill calls for comprehensive reform to appease both left and right, including: (for Republicans) a 700-mile mile fence; 20,000 additional border patrol agency; and E-Verify to make sure business don't hire unauthorized laborers, and (for Democrats): a 13-year pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants; and green cards for undocumented Dreamers within five years of entering the country.

The "gang of eight" bill (which refers to the eight senators who co-sponsored the legislation, including Sens. Marco Rubio (R - Fla.), Chuck Schumer (D - N.Y.) and John McCain (R - Ariz.)) has a tougher challenge ahead of it, as it must now get through the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. However the American Action Network, a right-wing think tank, is claiming the bill will help add jobs to the economy, playing to the Republican stand-by of job creation as a core GOP ethos.

According to the group, the passage of the bill would create - on average - 14,000 new jobs per congressional district while cutting the federal deficit by $685 billion over the next 20 years. In New York, over 160,000 jobs would be created, according to the group's database.

"The legal immigration system is broken and we need to find a sensible conservative solution," AAN President Brian Walsh said in a statement. "These findings prove that conservative immigration reform would help local economies in every district in America. Congress should continue working on true methodical immigration reform to fix the broken border and help local economies grow."