Legislation falls victim to internal party disputes less than a
day after being hailed as a bipartisan breakthrough
By David Espo Associated Press
Washington – Landmark legislation offering eventual citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants suffered a potentially fatal blow Friday in the Senate, the latest in a series of election-year setbacks for President Bush and the Republicans who control Congress.
“Politics got ahead of policy on this,” lamented Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.
Hailed as a bipartisan breakthrough less than 24 hours earlier, the bill fell victim to internal disputes in both parties. On the key vote, only 38 senators, all Democrats, lined up in support. That was 22 short of the 60 needed, and left the legislation in limbo as lawmakers left the Capitol for a two-week break.
Supporters expressed hope for its resurrection, particularly with public demonstrations planned over the next several days.
“We have an agreement. It’s not going away,” said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who earlier had estimated more than 60 senators favor the measure. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, pledged to have legislation ready for debate in the Senate within two weeks of the lawmakers’ return.
Majority Leader Bill Frist stopped short of a commitment to bring another bill to the floor by year’s end. “I intend to,” the Tennessee Republican said, but added it would depend on the schedule, already crowded with other legislation.
The immigration bill would have provided for stronger border security, regulated the future entry of foreign workers and created a complex new set of regulations for the estimated 11 million immigrants in the country illegally. Officials said an estimated nine million of them, those who could show they had been in the United States for more than two years, would eventually become eligible for citizenship under the proposal.
Frist accused Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, of “putting a stranglehold” on the Senate by refusing to permit votes on more than three Republican amendments.
Reid and others swiftly rebutted the claim. But Kennedy, who had seemed more eager than the Nevadan all week to find a compromise, declined several chances to offer a strong defense of his party’s leader.
And Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, second-ranking Democrat, said late Thursday night it would be “game, set, match over” if Republicans failed to put up enough votes to advance the bill their leader supported.
Republicans, including those who favored the immigration bill, decided in advance they would cast protest votes to emphasize their opposition to Reid’s tactics. The Democratic leader has prevented votes on all but a few non-controversial amendments since debate began on the bill more than a week ago.
All week, internal party divisions were on unusual public display.
Frist, a potential presidential contender for 2008, initially advanced a bill largely limited to border security. He then embraced Bush’s concept of a broader measure including provisions relating to illegal immigrants. But in doing so, he left behind GOP conservatives. Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, both members of the leadership, openly opposed the bill. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, the second and third-ranking members of the leadership, played modest roles in the public debate.
Outside the Senate, several Democratic strategists concluded that the best politics was to allow the bill to die, leaving Republicans with a failed initiative in the Senate at a time when the GOP in the House had passed a measure making illegal immigrants subject to felony charges.
