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Senate Killed the Immigration Bill
Today (6/28), the Senate killed the immigration bill by 46 to 53 vote,
meaning that the issue is most likely dead until after the 2008 elections.
meaning that the issue is most likely dead until after the 2008 elections.
6/28: Senate Killed the Immigration Bill, Statements from National Immigrant Solidarity Network
Lee Siu Hin
National Coordinator
National Immigrant Solidarity Network
_http://www.ImmigrantSolidarity.org_ (http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/)
Today (6/28), the Senate killed the immigration bill by 46 to 53 vote,
meaning that the issue is most likely dead until after the 2008 elections.
It's an unfortunate but expected outcome for a immigrant bill that no one
likes. The proposal is unacceptable and unreasonable, most community-based
organizations had against the bill while only few "pro-immigrant" Democratic and
President Bush will supports it, at end--also ironically, we helped the
right-wing anti-immigrant groups to claim "credits" for their work on defeating
the bill.
This is NOT an "amnesty" bill, this is a bill will continue and even expand
the institutional racist and oppressive measures to against the immigrant
communities, escalating the militarization of the border, and giving migrants
empty and unrealistic promises for path to the citizenship (For the detailed
analysis, please go: _http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/legislation.html_
(http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/legislation.html) )
Lessons we should learn:
1) The Failure of "Bi-Partisan" Politics: We should NEVER expect "moderate"
Republicans--and many Democratic--will cooperate honestly to push for a truly
bi-partisan immigrant legislation that will be benefit us. We should also
NEVER expect most Democratic leaderships (although they are better then
Republicans) will have courage to draft a true immigrant legislation that will be
benefit us--just like what happened on the recent Military budget and Iraqi
funding bill.
2) Never Accepts "Less Then Perfect": Some bill supporters had been
misleading and even threaten to say if we don't accepts the "less then perfect"
bill--we'll never get anything. In reality, we cannot supports the bill because
it's far worse then "less then perfect." No one should arguing "separation but
equal" is the best solution for our survival. We should ask for the best,
fight for the best and push for the best!
3) Know Your Friends, Never Say Never: The latest immigrant legislation
shows the disconnections between most Congressional leaderships/major
organizations, vs. the community-based organizations at the local level. The true
people's movement should be bottoms-up from the community, not tops-down from the
organization's headquarters by experts and leaders. A true immigrant
rights/civil rights/human rights movements should be build based on mutual
understanding, trust and honest exchange of ideas, and to build a equal
partnerships to
work together.
Lee Siu Hin
National Coordinator
National Immigrant Solidarity Network
_http://www.ImmigrantSolidarity.org_ (http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/)
Please Come! July 27-29 National Grassroots Immigrant Strategy Conference,
Richmond, VA _http://www.2007conference.net_ (http://www.mayday2007.org/)
(http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immig29jun29,1,3774933.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&track=crosspromo)
1) Immigration bill dead in Senate
By Nicole Gaouette
Los Angeles Times
June 28, 2007
_http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immig29jun29,1,3774933.s
tory?coll=la-headlines-nation&track=crosspromo_
(http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immig29jun29,1,3774933.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&;
track=crosspromo)
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers killed the Senate immigration bill today, voting 46
to 53 to move to a final vote on the controversial measure, 14 short of the 60
required.
The defeat is a setback for the bipartisan team of lawmakers who worked for
months to craft a bill they hoped would draw enough support from both parties
to pass. It represents a blow to President Bush, who threw his full support
behind broad immigration reform and whose Cabinet played a key role in shaping
the legislation. And it represented a victory for grassroots conservatives
who, spurred by right-wing radio talk show hosts, overwhelmed Congress with
phone calls and e-mails assailing the legislation.
The legislation's demise makes the fate of immigration reform in the near
term uncertain. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) made it clear to
Senate leaders and the White House that she would not bring up immigration
legislation unless the Senate passed it first.
This morning, the senators behind the legislation took to the floor to make
impassioned pleas urging their fellow lawmakers to support the measure, even
as the several Senate phone systems crashed from the volume of calls from
people for and against it.
"Even if you disagree with this bill, don't end this debate," said Sen.
Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), who urged his colleagues to reject "these voices of
exclusion" opposing the measure and not "say we are surrendering to these
negative voices across America."
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), a key member of the team that worked to
produce the bill, said that in the aftermath of its failure, more illegal
immigrants would continue to cross the border, and she rapped conservative critics
for their focus on the provision that would allow illegal immigrants to gain
legal status.
"To those people who opposed this as an amnesty bill, I don't know how you
can say more strongly, this is not," Feinstein said.
Calling up images of Nazi Germany, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.)
chastised opponents for clinging to the idea that America could simply track down and
deport more than 12 million illegal immigrants. "America deserves better,"
he said.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a staunch opponent of the bill, cited a study
by the Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan arm of Congress, which said
the bill would reduce illegal immigration only by 13%. "Let's stop here now,
let's go back to the drawing board and come up with a bill that will work," he
said.
Though critics have argued that the Bush administration could deal with
illegal immigration by enforcing existing law, the bill's backers and
administration officials such as Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff have
pointed out that there is no existing mandatory system to ensure that illegal
immigrants are not hired at work sites. The bill would create one.
"At the end of the day, it's the most important measure that we could have,"
said Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.).
The bill concentrated on security provisions that would have added thousands
of agents at the border, along with physical and virtual barriers, cameras
and radar. It would have created a work site system to verify that all workers
have legal status.
Once those systems were up and running, the bill's other provisions would
kick in. A temporary-worker program would bring in 200,00 workers a year, and
eligible illegal immigrants who had been on a probationary legal status until
that point would get the bill's "Z Visa."
Opposition to the bill has centered around Republican objections to the Z
Visa program.
"A big amnesty with inadequate enforcement will cause the problem to grow,
not diminish," said Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), who alongside Sessions led the
procedural objections to the bill. Vitter said the vote would reveal whether
the Senate as a body was "arrogant" and "out of touch."
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), citing the crashing phone lines in Senate offices
across Capitol Hill, said the silver lining of the debate was that it had
re-engaged the American people.
But the bill also drew Democratic opposition from lawmakers worried about
the potential impact on low-wage American workers and concerned about border
security, particularly from freshman Democrats like Sen. Claire McCaskill
(D-Mo.), Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mo.) and Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) who won their seats
from Republicans.
The bill had a phoenix-like return last week after appearing dead in early
June, when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pulled it from the floor
after it failed a test vote. Senators worked behind the scenes to resolve a
conflict over amendments before bringing the bill to the floor last week.
Sen. Lindsay Graham, a North Carolina Republican who has been a favorite
target of the bill's opponents for his part in writing it, warned his GOP
colleagues that today's vote would be their only chance to get what they wanted out
of an immigration bill. Saying Democrats would not go away and would never
allow a bill that only includes a fence, Graham told Republicans to "remember
this day if you vote no. You will never have this day again.... This is as
good as it is going to get."
Times staff writer Noam Levey contributed to this report.
==============================================================
2) Senate Blocks Effort to Revive Immigration Overhaul
By ROBERT PEAR and JOHN HOLUSHA
June 28, 2007
_http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/28/washington/28cnd-immig.html?hp_
(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/28/washington/28cnd-immig.html?hp)
WASHINGTON, June 28 —The Senate voted today to effectively block efforts to
overhaul the nation’s immigration laws, meaning that the issue is most likely
dead until after the 2008 elections.
Needing 60 votes to bring debate on the contentious bill to an end — a step
called cloture — and move it toward passage, proponents of the bill could only
muster 46 votes in favor today, with 53 opposed.
In the debate leading up to the vote, Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of
Pennsylvania, said, “If we do not invoke cloture, the bill is dead.”
Today’s vote reverses the Senate’s action on Tuesday, when, with a lot of
encouragement from President Bush, the Senate voted, 64-35, to keep working on
the bill, which would establish a path to citizenship for the estimated 12
million illegal immigrants now in the country.
The debate just before the vote today was intense, even personal.
“We know what they’re against — we don’t know what they’re for,” Senator
Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, said of the bill’s opponents.
Perhaps, Mr. Kennedy suggested, the bill’s opponents envision some kind of “
gestapo” to round up illegal immigrants. “That’s their alternative?” Mr.
Kennedy shouted. “That’s their alternative?”
Another supporter of the legislation, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of
California, pleaded with her colleagues not to let the bill lapse. “If we miss
this opportunity, there is not likely to be another in the next few years,”
she said.
But Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama and an opponent of the
bill, said the legislation’s supporters — “the masters of the universe,” he
called them scathingly — had tried to push the measure through by unfairly
limiting debate.
On Wednesday, the Senate killed proposed amendments to the bill from the
left and the right. Democrats failed in efforts to promote family unification by
providing more visas to parents of United States citizens. Republicans lost
in their bid to toughen the bill’s requirements for illegal immigrants who
want to become permanent residents and ultimately citizens. Those results
reflected the fragile bipartisan compromise embodied in the bill, President Bush’s
top domestic priority, which would make the biggest changes in immigration
law in more than 20 years.
The debate became unusually testy, and senators tied themselves in
procedural knots as they tried to work through a slate of 27 proposed amendments.
Some
senators obstructed normally routine requests by their colleagues — raising
objections, for example, when senators asked to dispense with further
proceedings under a quorum call, or to explain their reasons for opposing requests
for unanimous consent.
“We are in trench warfare,” said Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of
Pennsylvania, a strong supporter of the bill.
A leading opponent of the measure, Senator David Vitter, Republican of
Louisiana, said, “I am being railroaded.”The bill would have provided $4.4
billion for border security, increased the penalties for hiring illegal immigrants,
created a new guest worker program and offered legal status to millions of
illegal immigrants.
By a vote of 53 to 45, the Senate killed a Republican proposal that would
have required most adult illegal immigrants to return to their home countries to
apply for legal status, in the form of special “Z visas,” which would allow
them to work in this country.
The vote does not mean that the “touchback requirement” is dead. The
overall bill includes such a requirement for people who want permanent residence
visas, known as green cards. And the Senate is scheduled to consider another
version of the touchback requirement supported by many Republicans. The
proposals respond to criticism from conservatives who denounce the bill as a form of
amnesty for people who have broken the law.
The bill would have established a point system to evaluate would-be
immigrants, giving more weight to job skills and education and less to family ties.
By a vote of 56 to 41, the Senate killed an amendment by Senator Christopher
S. Bond, Republican of Missouri, that would have prohibited illegal
immigrants from obtaining green cards. In general, under existing law, permanent re
sidents can apply for citizenship after living in the United States for five
years.
“If they come here illegally just to work, they have not earned citizenship,”
Mr. Bond said. “We are all immigrants, but we did not come here illegally
and expect to get citizenship.”
Senator Kennedy, the chief Democratic architect of the bill, said illegal
immigrants would be easily exploited if they could never become lawful permanent
residents. “We can imagine the resentment, the hostility that will seethe
and grow,” Mr. Kennedy said.
By a vote of 79 to 18, the Senate killed a proposal by Senator Jim Webb,
Democrat of Virginia, that would have reduced the number of illegal immigrants
who could gain legal status. Under the bill, legal status would be available to
immigrants who have been in the United States since Jan. 1. Mr. Webb would
have pushed the date back to 2003, requiring four years of “continuous
physical presence.” He would also have eliminated the touchback requirement, which
he said was unworkable.
Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, complained that the Senate
majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, had “handpicked the
amendments” to be considered this week.
Mr. Reid said he had chosen the amendments in consultation with the minority
leader, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Aides to Mr. McConnell
confirmed that.
Influential labor and Hispanic groups had urged the Senate to pass the bill
and send it to the House, where they said flaws could be corrected. The groups
included the Service Employees International Union, the National Council of
La Raza, the United Farm Workers and the Mexican American Legal Defense and
Educational Fund.
“The price of failure will be hundreds of more people dying in the desert,”
said Eliseo Medina, an executive vice president of the service employees
union. “The price of failure will be more workplace raids and families separated
as breadwinners are arrested and deported. The price of failure will be more
public anger at the broken immigration system. More states and cities will
pass punitive laws that target immigrants.”
David Stout contributed reporting from Washington.
=================================================================
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Lee Siu Hin
National Coordinator
National Immigrant Solidarity Network
_http://www.ImmigrantSolidarity.org_ (http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/)
Today (6/28), the Senate killed the immigration bill by 46 to 53 vote,
meaning that the issue is most likely dead until after the 2008 elections.
It's an unfortunate but expected outcome for a immigrant bill that no one
likes. The proposal is unacceptable and unreasonable, most community-based
organizations had against the bill while only few "pro-immigrant" Democratic and
President Bush will supports it, at end--also ironically, we helped the
right-wing anti-immigrant groups to claim "credits" for their work on defeating
the bill.
This is NOT an "amnesty" bill, this is a bill will continue and even expand
the institutional racist and oppressive measures to against the immigrant
communities, escalating the militarization of the border, and giving migrants
empty and unrealistic promises for path to the citizenship (For the detailed
analysis, please go: _http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/legislation.html_
(http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/legislation.html) )
Lessons we should learn:
1) The Failure of "Bi-Partisan" Politics: We should NEVER expect "moderate"
Republicans--and many Democratic--will cooperate honestly to push for a truly
bi-partisan immigrant legislation that will be benefit us. We should also
NEVER expect most Democratic leaderships (although they are better then
Republicans) will have courage to draft a true immigrant legislation that will be
benefit us--just like what happened on the recent Military budget and Iraqi
funding bill.
2) Never Accepts "Less Then Perfect": Some bill supporters had been
misleading and even threaten to say if we don't accepts the "less then perfect"
bill--we'll never get anything. In reality, we cannot supports the bill because
it's far worse then "less then perfect." No one should arguing "separation but
equal" is the best solution for our survival. We should ask for the best,
fight for the best and push for the best!
3) Know Your Friends, Never Say Never: The latest immigrant legislation
shows the disconnections between most Congressional leaderships/major
organizations, vs. the community-based organizations at the local level. The true
people's movement should be bottoms-up from the community, not tops-down from the
organization's headquarters by experts and leaders. A true immigrant
rights/civil rights/human rights movements should be build based on mutual
understanding, trust and honest exchange of ideas, and to build a equal
partnerships to
work together.
Lee Siu Hin
National Coordinator
National Immigrant Solidarity Network
_http://www.ImmigrantSolidarity.org_ (http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/)
Please Come! July 27-29 National Grassroots Immigrant Strategy Conference,
Richmond, VA _http://www.2007conference.net_ (http://www.mayday2007.org/)
(http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immig29jun29,1,3774933.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&track=crosspromo)
1) Immigration bill dead in Senate
By Nicole Gaouette
Los Angeles Times
June 28, 2007
_http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immig29jun29,1,3774933.s
tory?coll=la-headlines-nation&track=crosspromo_
(http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immig29jun29,1,3774933.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&;
track=crosspromo)
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers killed the Senate immigration bill today, voting 46
to 53 to move to a final vote on the controversial measure, 14 short of the 60
required.
The defeat is a setback for the bipartisan team of lawmakers who worked for
months to craft a bill they hoped would draw enough support from both parties
to pass. It represents a blow to President Bush, who threw his full support
behind broad immigration reform and whose Cabinet played a key role in shaping
the legislation. And it represented a victory for grassroots conservatives
who, spurred by right-wing radio talk show hosts, overwhelmed Congress with
phone calls and e-mails assailing the legislation.
The legislation's demise makes the fate of immigration reform in the near
term uncertain. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) made it clear to
Senate leaders and the White House that she would not bring up immigration
legislation unless the Senate passed it first.
This morning, the senators behind the legislation took to the floor to make
impassioned pleas urging their fellow lawmakers to support the measure, even
as the several Senate phone systems crashed from the volume of calls from
people for and against it.
"Even if you disagree with this bill, don't end this debate," said Sen.
Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), who urged his colleagues to reject "these voices of
exclusion" opposing the measure and not "say we are surrendering to these
negative voices across America."
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), a key member of the team that worked to
produce the bill, said that in the aftermath of its failure, more illegal
immigrants would continue to cross the border, and she rapped conservative critics
for their focus on the provision that would allow illegal immigrants to gain
legal status.
"To those people who opposed this as an amnesty bill, I don't know how you
can say more strongly, this is not," Feinstein said.
Calling up images of Nazi Germany, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.)
chastised opponents for clinging to the idea that America could simply track down and
deport more than 12 million illegal immigrants. "America deserves better,"
he said.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a staunch opponent of the bill, cited a study
by the Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan arm of Congress, which said
the bill would reduce illegal immigration only by 13%. "Let's stop here now,
let's go back to the drawing board and come up with a bill that will work," he
said.
Though critics have argued that the Bush administration could deal with
illegal immigration by enforcing existing law, the bill's backers and
administration officials such as Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff have
pointed out that there is no existing mandatory system to ensure that illegal
immigrants are not hired at work sites. The bill would create one.
"At the end of the day, it's the most important measure that we could have,"
said Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.).
The bill concentrated on security provisions that would have added thousands
of agents at the border, along with physical and virtual barriers, cameras
and radar. It would have created a work site system to verify that all workers
have legal status.
Once those systems were up and running, the bill's other provisions would
kick in. A temporary-worker program would bring in 200,00 workers a year, and
eligible illegal immigrants who had been on a probationary legal status until
that point would get the bill's "Z Visa."
Opposition to the bill has centered around Republican objections to the Z
Visa program.
"A big amnesty with inadequate enforcement will cause the problem to grow,
not diminish," said Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), who alongside Sessions led the
procedural objections to the bill. Vitter said the vote would reveal whether
the Senate as a body was "arrogant" and "out of touch."
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), citing the crashing phone lines in Senate offices
across Capitol Hill, said the silver lining of the debate was that it had
re-engaged the American people.
But the bill also drew Democratic opposition from lawmakers worried about
the potential impact on low-wage American workers and concerned about border
security, particularly from freshman Democrats like Sen. Claire McCaskill
(D-Mo.), Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mo.) and Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) who won their seats
from Republicans.
The bill had a phoenix-like return last week after appearing dead in early
June, when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pulled it from the floor
after it failed a test vote. Senators worked behind the scenes to resolve a
conflict over amendments before bringing the bill to the floor last week.
Sen. Lindsay Graham, a North Carolina Republican who has been a favorite
target of the bill's opponents for his part in writing it, warned his GOP
colleagues that today's vote would be their only chance to get what they wanted out
of an immigration bill. Saying Democrats would not go away and would never
allow a bill that only includes a fence, Graham told Republicans to "remember
this day if you vote no. You will never have this day again.... This is as
good as it is going to get."
Times staff writer Noam Levey contributed to this report.
==============================================================
2) Senate Blocks Effort to Revive Immigration Overhaul
By ROBERT PEAR and JOHN HOLUSHA
June 28, 2007
_http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/28/washington/28cnd-immig.html?hp_
(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/28/washington/28cnd-immig.html?hp)
WASHINGTON, June 28 —The Senate voted today to effectively block efforts to
overhaul the nation’s immigration laws, meaning that the issue is most likely
dead until after the 2008 elections.
Needing 60 votes to bring debate on the contentious bill to an end — a step
called cloture — and move it toward passage, proponents of the bill could only
muster 46 votes in favor today, with 53 opposed.
In the debate leading up to the vote, Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of
Pennsylvania, said, “If we do not invoke cloture, the bill is dead.”
Today’s vote reverses the Senate’s action on Tuesday, when, with a lot of
encouragement from President Bush, the Senate voted, 64-35, to keep working on
the bill, which would establish a path to citizenship for the estimated 12
million illegal immigrants now in the country.
The debate just before the vote today was intense, even personal.
“We know what they’re against — we don’t know what they’re for,” Senator
Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, said of the bill’s opponents.
Perhaps, Mr. Kennedy suggested, the bill’s opponents envision some kind of “
gestapo” to round up illegal immigrants. “That’s their alternative?” Mr.
Kennedy shouted. “That’s their alternative?”
Another supporter of the legislation, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of
California, pleaded with her colleagues not to let the bill lapse. “If we miss
this opportunity, there is not likely to be another in the next few years,”
she said.
But Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama and an opponent of the
bill, said the legislation’s supporters — “the masters of the universe,” he
called them scathingly — had tried to push the measure through by unfairly
limiting debate.
On Wednesday, the Senate killed proposed amendments to the bill from the
left and the right. Democrats failed in efforts to promote family unification by
providing more visas to parents of United States citizens. Republicans lost
in their bid to toughen the bill’s requirements for illegal immigrants who
want to become permanent residents and ultimately citizens. Those results
reflected the fragile bipartisan compromise embodied in the bill, President Bush’s
top domestic priority, which would make the biggest changes in immigration
law in more than 20 years.
The debate became unusually testy, and senators tied themselves in
procedural knots as they tried to work through a slate of 27 proposed amendments.
Some
senators obstructed normally routine requests by their colleagues — raising
objections, for example, when senators asked to dispense with further
proceedings under a quorum call, or to explain their reasons for opposing requests
for unanimous consent.
“We are in trench warfare,” said Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of
Pennsylvania, a strong supporter of the bill.
A leading opponent of the measure, Senator David Vitter, Republican of
Louisiana, said, “I am being railroaded.”The bill would have provided $4.4
billion for border security, increased the penalties for hiring illegal immigrants,
created a new guest worker program and offered legal status to millions of
illegal immigrants.
By a vote of 53 to 45, the Senate killed a Republican proposal that would
have required most adult illegal immigrants to return to their home countries to
apply for legal status, in the form of special “Z visas,” which would allow
them to work in this country.
The vote does not mean that the “touchback requirement” is dead. The
overall bill includes such a requirement for people who want permanent residence
visas, known as green cards. And the Senate is scheduled to consider another
version of the touchback requirement supported by many Republicans. The
proposals respond to criticism from conservatives who denounce the bill as a form of
amnesty for people who have broken the law.
The bill would have established a point system to evaluate would-be
immigrants, giving more weight to job skills and education and less to family ties.
By a vote of 56 to 41, the Senate killed an amendment by Senator Christopher
S. Bond, Republican of Missouri, that would have prohibited illegal
immigrants from obtaining green cards. In general, under existing law, permanent re
sidents can apply for citizenship after living in the United States for five
years.
“If they come here illegally just to work, they have not earned citizenship,”
Mr. Bond said. “We are all immigrants, but we did not come here illegally
and expect to get citizenship.”
Senator Kennedy, the chief Democratic architect of the bill, said illegal
immigrants would be easily exploited if they could never become lawful permanent
residents. “We can imagine the resentment, the hostility that will seethe
and grow,” Mr. Kennedy said.
By a vote of 79 to 18, the Senate killed a proposal by Senator Jim Webb,
Democrat of Virginia, that would have reduced the number of illegal immigrants
who could gain legal status. Under the bill, legal status would be available to
immigrants who have been in the United States since Jan. 1. Mr. Webb would
have pushed the date back to 2003, requiring four years of “continuous
physical presence.” He would also have eliminated the touchback requirement, which
he said was unworkable.
Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, complained that the Senate
majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, had “handpicked the
amendments” to be considered this week.
Mr. Reid said he had chosen the amendments in consultation with the minority
leader, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Aides to Mr. McConnell
confirmed that.
Influential labor and Hispanic groups had urged the Senate to pass the bill
and send it to the House, where they said flaws could be corrected. The groups
included the Service Employees International Union, the National Council of
La Raza, the United Farm Workers and the Mexican American Legal Defense and
Educational Fund.
“The price of failure will be hundreds of more people dying in the desert,”
said Eliseo Medina, an executive vice president of the service employees
union. “The price of failure will be more workplace raids and families separated
as breadwinners are arrested and deported. The price of failure will be more
public anger at the broken immigration system. More states and cities will
pass punitive laws that target immigrants.”
David Stout contributed reporting from Washington.
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