Immigration bill fails key test-vote By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer
13 minutes ago
A fragile bipartisan compromise that would legalize millions of unlawful immigrants suffered a setback Thursday when it failed a test vote in the Senate, leaving its prospects uncertain.
Still, the measure — a top priority for President Bush that's under attack from the right and left — won a brief reprieve when Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record), D-Nev., said he would give it more time before yanking the bill and moving on to other matters.
His decision set the stage for yet another procedural vote later Thursday that will measure lawmakers' appetite for a so-called "grand bargain" between liberals and conservatives on immigration.
If that fails, Reid threatened, "The bill's over with."
In the meantime, though, Reid said the president must lean on Republicans to back a deal that Bush spearheaded and most Democrats are eager to support.
"We are trying to get the bill passed. All we ask is that the White House weigh in and try to get some Republicans to vote with us," Reid said.
The bill would tighten borders, institute a new system to prevent employers from hiring undocumented workers, and give many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants a pathway to legal status. Conceived by an improbable coalition, it exposes deep rifts within both parties.
By a vote of 33-63, the Senate fell far short of the 60 votes that would have been needed to limit debate on the immigration measure and put it on a path to passage. Republicans — even those who helped craft the measure and are ultimately expected to support it — banded together to oppose that move, while a majority of Democrats backed it. Fifteen Democrats and Independent Sen. Bernard Sanders (news, bio, voting record) of Vermont, who is usually allied with their party, voted "no."
Republicans were seeking assurances they would get chances to add several conservative-backed changes that would toughen the measure.
Democrats are "simply not going to get anywhere trying to stuff the minority," said Sen. Mitch McConnell (news, bio, voting record) of Kentucky, the GOP leader.
Republicans who cut the immigration deal and are working to fight off challenges to it from within their own ranks, nonetheless voted in solidarity with the rest of their party.
"Clearly, we need more time," said Sen. Jon Kyl (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., a framer of the agreement.
But even some Republicans said they were getting impatient with members of their own party who were balking at finishing the bill.
"I'm telling them, too, I've about had it. Enough is enough here now. We're going to get some more amendments," said Sen. Trent Lott (news, bio, voting record), R-Miss. "We're going to do this damn thing."
Proponents in both parties were scrambling to find a way of reversing a blow their compromise sustained earlier Thursday, when the Senate voted to phase out the bill's temporary worker program after five years.
The 49-48 vote just after midnight on making the temporary worker program itself temporary came two weeks after the Senate, also by a one-vote margin, rejected an earlier attempt by Sen. Byron Dorgan (news, bio, voting record) to end the program after five years. The North Dakota Democrat says immigrants take many jobs Americans could fill.
Dorgan's success dismayed backers of the immigration bill, which is loathed by many conservatives.
The Bush administration, along with business interests and their congressional allies, were already angry that the temporary worker program had been cut in half from its original 400,000-person-a-year target.
A five-year sunset, they said, could knock the legs from the precarious bipartisan coalition. The change "is a tremendous problem, but it's correctable," said Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa. Backers will try as early as Thursday to persuade at least one senator to help reverse the outcome yet again, he added.
Until the Dorgan vote was tallied, Specter and other architects of the compromise had succeeded in maneuvering through a minefield of major challenges.
They had turned back a bid to reduce the number of illegal immigrants who could gain lawful status. They also defeated an effort to allow more family members of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents to qualify for green cards.
Still, several problematic changes proposed by conservatives prevailed, including one by Sen. John Cornyn (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas, that would make it easier to locate and deport illegal immigrants whose visa applications are rejected.
The bill would have barred law enforcement agencies from seeing applications for so-called Z visas that allow illegal immigrants to gain legal status.
Specter said Thursday that the issue would be revisited, given concerns that eligible applicants might be dissuaded from coming forward if they believed they could be deported as a result.
Also Thursday, the Senate rejected a conservative-backed amendment that would have allowed Congress to block the legalization of millions of unlawful immigrants if it deemed the border too porous.
The vote was 42-54 on an amendment by conservative Sens. Tom Coburn (news, bio, voting record), R-Okla., and Jim DeMint (news, bio, voting record), R-S.C., that would have required a congressional vote to certify that border security and workplace enforcement "triggers" were in place before the legalization or the new guest worker program could take effect.
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The bill is S1348
(This version CORRECTS description of Dorgan amendment to ending program after five years, not eliminating it. )
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