ImmigrationBipartisan Group of Eight to unveil immigration reform bill in early April

The bipartisan group of senators known as the Group of Eight,  currently finalizing the details of  a sweeping immigration bill, said on Wednesday that they will be ready to unveil their plan to Congress when it gets back to work in April.

The  Huffington Post reports that  four of the senators —   John McCain (R-Arizona), Jeff Flake (R-Arizona),  Chuck Schumer (D-New York), and Michael Bennet (D-Colorado) — took a tour of the U.S-Mexico border to view Border Patrol agents apprehend a woman who attempted to climb an 18-foot-tall bollard fence.

“You can read and you can study and you can talk but until you see things it doesn’t become reality,” Schumer, who toured the border for the first time, told the  Post. “I’ll be able to explain this to my colleagues. Many of my colleagues say, ‘Why do we need to do anything more on the border?’ and we do. We should do more.”

According to Bennet, the bipartisan group has made border security an essential part of theie reform proposal, but they do not believe that double-sided fences along the border will help, even while some lawmakers in Arizona want to install even more fences.

“There is not one simple solution to the issue of border security,” Bennet said. “This isn’t as simple as someone on the East Coast saying ‘We need a fence everywhere or we don’t.’”

President Barack Obama has been pushing Congress to pass an immigration bill sometime this year. The issues of a secure border, however, is a sticking point for some  senators not only because they want to make sure that drug smuggling,  human trafficking, and general crime are down along the border and the surrounding towns, but, as importantly, they fear that the combination of immigration reform and a porous border will be an invitation for illegal immigrants to continue to come to the United States in the hope of becoming citizens one day.

McCain and  other Republicans believe that some sections of the border are not secure at this time.

The senators toured the border on the ground and in the air, observing manned aircraft and and unmanned drones at work. The  senators also got a look at cars going through the checkpoint in Nogales, Mexico.

“In so many ways, whatever your views are on immigration, Arizona is ground zero,” Schumer told the Post. “What I learned today is we have adequate manpower, but not adequate technology.”

The proposed bill is likely to have some standards for border security, as well as allowing more high-skilled workers to come to the United States.

McCain and Schumer say the bill would pay for itself, but admit  their border security package would be costly. McCain  is optimistic the bill will be passed, but knows that it will have many critics 

“Nobody is going to be totally happy with this legislation, no one will be because we have to make compromises,” McCain told the Post.