There was push back because the reform included amnesty. I realize the GOP is portrayed as racist because they want people to check in at the border and have jobs and they dont want the few criminals that do come in to commit more crimes against Americans and they dont like the drugs and contraband crossing the border unchecked but that fact gets lost in the media and Democrat buzzword..racism. I'm sure there are a few racists in the GOP just like there are a few racists in the Democrat party. There are a lot of real problems at the border in regards to immigration but they cant ever get fixed because if any group is excluded or you try and limit certain groups you are called a racist. It's not really racism anyway. It's a class issue. Nobody gives a shit if you let in "brown people" that are in finance or engineers, lawyers, doctors, scientists, teachers, etc. They benefit a society more than someone that is a laborer. Letting uneducated poor people in that isolate themselves and collect government benefits on a stressed system and foster an underground economy and in turn send a lot of their money out of the country does not benefit a society as much as someone with a high paying job that pays a lot in taxes. However, the poors do serve one valuable purpose...once they become citizens, they vote and once their children reach a certain age, they vote. So for certain political ideologies, it's the long game.