Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) said he expects a comprehensive immigration reform bill to be completed by the end of this year, or early next year. According to Schumer, the bill will focus on increasing the number of highly skilled foreign workers in the U.S. and getting tougher on illegal immigration.

While business seeks to expand the skilled employee pool, particularly in the technology sector, unions have generally been against increased foreign labor. However, AFL-CIO and Change to Win, two prominent unions, came out earlier this year in favor of immigration reform, which they previously opposed. To appeal to both sides, Senator Schumer believes legislators will need to bridge the gap between them. "I think one of the ways to bridge it is to look at the different areas of labor and where there are shortages and where there are not and where just workers are being brought in for exploitive purposes — broadly put meaning just get lower wages — rather than having a shortage," Schumer said.