Washington ( CNN ) -- On the surface , the type of heated exchanges that boiled over at a congressional hearing on Monday on immigration reform appeared to center on the two foreign-born suspects in last week 's Boston Marathon bombings . Beneath the surface , however , simmered tensions over the depth , breadth and pacing of plans to overhaul U.S. immigration policy currently wending through the Senate . `` Last week , opponents of comprehensive immigration reform began to exploit the Boston Marathon bombing . ... I urge restraint in that regard , '' Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy , D-Vermont , said at the beginning of Monday 's hearing . `` Refugees and asylum-seekers have enriched the fabric of this country from our founding . '' Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley , the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee , was one of the first conservatives to publicly connect the bombings to the roiling immigration debate and question whether the attacks would suggest a need to slow down and re-examine immigration reform efforts . He took exception to suggestions that he and others are trying to `` exploit '' the bombing for political purposes . `` I do n't hear any criticism ... when there ( were ) 14 people killed in West , Texas , and ( some political activists took ) advantage of that tragedy to warn about more government action to make sure that fertilizer factories are safe , '' Grassley said . Boston terror fears raised at Senate immigration hearing . Both sides in the contentious immigration debate accuse the other of cynicism and using a national tragedy to score political points . The back and forth focuses on Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev , brothers of northern Caucasus origin who lived legally in the United States . Investigators believe the pair were behind the attacks near last Monday 's Boston Marathon finish line that killed three people and injured more than 170 others . Dzhokhar Tsarnaev , 19 , immigrated to the United States with his parents in 2002 and became a U.S. citizen in 2012 . Tamerlan Tsarnaev , 26 , followed a few years later and was a legal resident . Supporters of the bipartisan immigration measure authored by the so-called `` Gang of Eight '' accuse the other side of using any excuse , including using the Boston bombings , to stoke nationalistic sentiments as a way to derail the bill . Political rhetoric finds its way into post-bombing debate . New York Democrat Sen. Charles Schumer , one of the `` Gang of Eight '' senators who drafted the immigration plan , said on CNN 's `` State of the Union '' some on the right who opposed the bill `` from the get-go '' are simply using Boston `` as an excuse '' to stall the legislation . Opponents assert that the measure 's supporters are rushing through immigration reform legislation . Republican Sen. Dan Coats of Indiana said Sunday on ABC 's `` This Week '' that Congress should wait until the emotional reaction to the violence subsides before tackling immigration legislation . Other lawmakers such as Rep. Louie Gohmert , R-Texas and Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa have made similar assertion . Immigration reformers seek to avoid deja vu . Immigration law experts say they can see little merit to attempts to connect the Boston Marathon bombings to current immigration reform efforts . `` What I do see is the opponents of immigration reform who have no arguments about the morality and politics of ( this immigration package ) very cynically jumping on this horrible tragedy to derail this bill , '' said David Leopold , an immigration attorney and past president of the Washington-based American Immigration Lawyers Association . However , others caution that the current immigration reform measure has `` fundamental problems '' and applaud efforts to slow the pace of legislation . `` The bill is 132,000 words . The New Testament is 180,000 words . This is n't quite as long but it 's going to take a little time to go through , '' said Steven Camarota , director of research for the non-profit Center for Immigration Studies . Immigration reformers seek to avoid deja vu . CNN 's Tom Cohen and Ashley Killough contributed to this report .
The Boston Marathon bombings are influencing the immigration reform debate . Both sides of the immigration debate are accusing the other of playing politics . Score: 6