Immigration deal survives Senate GOP threat

 12 comment(s)  
 E-mail Story
 Print Story
  Share

 digg it!
 Facebook
 del.icio.us
Seed Newsvine
Fark It
Reddit

Text Size: 

Tools Sponsor

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS / The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The proposed immigration overhaul narrowly survived a potentially fatal challenge Wednesday as the Senate turned back a Republican bid to limit the illegal immigrants who could gain lawful status.

The close vote on a proposal by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, to bar felons — including those court-ordered to be deported — from legalization reflected the delicate position of the contentious immigration bill, which remains under threat from the right and the left.

The vote was 51-46 against the amendment. Democrats succeeded in pulling support from Cornyn’s proposal by winning adoption of a rival version that would bar a more limited set of criminals, including certain gang members and sex offenders, from gaining legalization. The Senate backed that amendment 66-32.

[+]Enlarge

Sen John Thune, R-S.D., right, looks on as Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas discuss his amendment to the immigration bill during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on Wednesday. (AP)

Sen John Thune, R-S.D., right, looks on as Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas discuss his amendment to the immigration bill during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on Wednesday. (AP)

Cornyn had painted his effort as a “defining issue” for any presidential candidate — a sign of the degree to which the contentious debate is bleeding over into the GOP campaign fray.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., alone among his party’s presidential aspirants in backing the immigration measure, opposed Cornyn’s bid and backed the Democratic alternative offered by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.

McCain was joined in opposing the amendment by the Senate’s four Democratic presidential hopefuls, Sens. Joseph Biden of Delaware, Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, and Barack Obama of Illinois.

After his defeat, Cornyn said those who voted against the proposal “failed to take an opportunity to help restore public confidence that we’re actually serious about passing an immigration law that could actually work.”

Many Americans will conclude instead that the bill’s enforcement provisions will not be rigorously enforced, a problem that deeply undermined a 1986 immigration overhaul, he added.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., called Cornyn’s measure “a stealth, Trojan horse amendment to kill the bill.”

The underlying bill would legalize an estimated 12 million unlawful immigrants, tighten border security and institute new enforcement measures to prevent employers from hiring illegal workers. Its proponents were laboring to push through the compromise under new time constraints imposed by Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who plans to force a test-vote as early as Thursday morning to end debate on it and move on to other matters.

Senators in both parties implored Reid not to yank the measure, as he has threatened to do if the test-vote fails.

“I think it’s safe to say that the United States Senate would be the laughingstock of the country if — after all of the hyperbole and all of the publicity and all of the proposals and objections — we’re not able to finish this bill,” said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., a framer.

Reid, who has charged that some Republicans are trying to stall or kill the measure, began the day with a plea for swift progress on immigration. He quoted a passage from Dr. Seuss’ “The Cat in the Hat” to describe the depth of the dilemma the issue poses for lawmakers: “This mess is so big and so deep and so tall, we cannot pick it up at all,” the Democratic leader rhymed, adding, “Some would say that is what we have in the Senate today.”

Still, lawmakers in both parties said they were making headway in fighting off damaging amendments and moving the measure closer to passage.

“We have made very important and significant progress,” Kennedy said.

Other amendments defeated Wednesday included a Democratic effort to alter the temporary guest worker program that would be created by the bill.

Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico wanted to allow workers to come for six consecutive years. The Senate voted 57-41 to reject the amendment, retaining the bill’s call for most guest workers to go home for a year between each of three two-year stints.

The Senate also rejected an amendment by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., to change the “Z visa” program whereby illegal immigrants could gain lawful status. DeMint proposed requiring them to buy high-deductible health plans to be eligible for visas.

Still ahead were several Democratic attempts to add family preferences to the measure.