A few of the leftovers from the infamous “Gang of Eight” in the Senate that pushed for comprehensive immigration reform back in 2013 have been toying with the idea of resurrecting the horrible failure of a legislation proposal.

Sen. Lindsay Graham told Politico in a recent interview that he would be interested in reviving the bipartisan proposals once put forth by the Gang of Eight if the Republican Party receives a sound thrashing in the upcoming November elections — because that’s what would be required for this immigration bill to pass the second time around.

“It is an extravaganza of immigration explosion and rewarding of illegal behavior … and the goals of that bill were going in the opposite direction of where most Americans wanted to see it going.”

“I’ll tell you what I’m going to do in 2017: I’m going to take the Gang of Eight bill out, dust it off, and ask anybody and everybody who wants to work with me to make it better to do so,” Graham said.

The Gang of Eight — which formerly included Sen. John McCain, Sen. Bob Menendez, Sen. Marco Rubio, and Sen. Chuck Schumer as a few of its most notable members — went up in flames just three years ago. After passing through the Senate on a wave of Republican retribution that sought to make amends for its massive losses with minority voters in the 2012 elections, the legislation stalled in the House just one year later. If it had passed and been enacted into law, the “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013” would have overhauled the United States’ current immigration laws in a massively sweeping gesture.

So what’s the problem here — aside from the fact that a resurrected immigration bill from the Gang would never pass?

“It is an extravaganza of immigration explosion and rewarding of illegal behavior,” said Jessica Vaughan, the director of Policy Studies for the Center for Immigration Studies. “It’s fatal flaw was that it was so massive and had so many moving parts all going in the direction of immigration expansion … and the goals of that bill were going in the opposite direction of where most Americans wanted to see it going.”

In fact, the Gang of Eight’s proposal has become so infamous and reviled among Americans that it significantly and irreparably damaged Rubio’s presidential bid for the Republican nomination and has the potential to hurt his campaign for re-election to the Senate this year. In response, Rubio has made a concerted effort to distance himself from the bill.

“I don’t believe that a comprehensive approach can pass, nor do I believe, at this point, given everything that’s transpired, that it’s the right way forward,” Rubio said, according to Politico.

Although former member Menendez said that he was “certainly open” to reconsidering the Gang’s proposals, other former players — including McCain — have expressed their reluctance, disavowed the idea entirely, or refused to answer.

“All I focus on is my election. Then I set the agenda for the next year,” McCain said, according to Politico. “I’m very superstitious about that.”

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Noting that the current American climate — as best exemplified by presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump — is strongly averse to giving amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, Vaughan said that resurrecting the bill could only happen if the House of Representatives experienced some “pretty important shifts.”

“I have a hard time believing that very many members of Congress relish the idea of going through that legislation again,” Vaughan said, adding that there would need to be a smaller-scale compromise in legislation that was more narrowly focused. “It could only happen if the House of Representatives is restructured.”

So why is Graham tossing around the idea of revisiting the failed legislation in a Congress and Senate so opposed to it?

“This would be an act of suicide for the United States and the Republican Party,” said Michael Cutler, a retired INS senior special agent whose career spanned some 30 years. “Why bother with a legal immigration system?” Cutler asked, adding that if the proposed legislation were to be enacted, it would send this disastrous message to anyone contemplating illegal entry into the United States and hoping for amnesty: “If you come to America, you’ll eventually get what you want.”

“We need deterrence through enforcement,” Cutler said. “We need effective immigration enforcement.”

And as for Graham?

“Lindsay Graham needs to be consigned to the dustbin of history,” Cutler concluded. “He needs to be made to answer to his party for that.”

“It shows how distanced [Graham] is from the Republican Party, his electorate, and reality,” Vaughan said.