The hard-liners who wanted to kill the Senate’s bill on immigration reform on the grounds that it amounted to amnesty for illegal immigrants should have been more careful when they wished.

Now that the bill is stalled, they just might get their wish.

That means the country may be stuck with the status quo for the foreseeable future.

As Sen. John McCain, representing the border state of Arizona, so pithily put it, the status quo means the United States will be stuck with “silent amnesty.”

Continuing the status quo means the estimated 12 million illegals already in the country will continue to work, drive and go about their lives in a shadowy existence that limits full community participation. The channels for workers to legally enter the country will remain clogged and befuddling. Illegal immigrants  will continue to flood across the border.

The problem with immigration reform has always been that there are too many zealots who insist that only their version of reform is acceptable. They refuse to make concessions. And so nothing is done.

In recognition of that history, a bipartisan group of senators put together a compromise bill that they called a “grand bargain.”

The bill may not have been perfect, but it would have been a significant improvement over the status quo.

Critics misleadingly refer to the legislation as an “amnesty bill.”

The label doesn’t fit. Illegal immigrants  who wanted to become citizens would have been required to learn English, pay a $5,000 fine, pass a background check and go to the back of the line for processing. Heads of households would have been required to return to their home country.

The characterization of the bill as amnesty also ignored other important provisions.

The bill also would have funded a huge upgrade in border security. It would have hired and trained 5,000 to 6,000 new Border Patrol agents, an increase of 50 percent. It would have hired thousands of new workers and established new registration centers to adequately process legal immigrants and workers.

Until those agents and workers were deployed, and until another 370 miles of fence had been installed, no illegal immigrants  would be permitted to apply for citizenship and the new temporary worker program would not begin. The requirement was aimed at avoiding a repeat of reform failure in the 1980s, when the government failed to deliver on its promise of enforcement.

The “grand bargain” bill was derailed when Majority Leader Harry Reid followed through on his promise to pull the bill unless members voted to limit debate to 30 hours. Both Nebraska senators, Chuck Hagel and Ben Nelson, voted in favor of the motion, but it failed nonetheless.

Responsible senators in both parties should continue attempts to revive the bill. For decades now, attempts at reform have failed because members were unwilling to compromise. But killing the bill does not constitute a victory. If the status quo continues, everyone loses.