Illegal Immigration

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Fallout From Immigration Bill's Failure

Wall Street Journal

John McCain heads to Iraq next week, to celebrate July 4 by helping to swear in re-enlisting soldiers. After the political fire he endured in America's immigration debate, that may feel like a backyard barbecue. The Arizona senator stands as the most obvious loser from Washington's botched attempt to overhaul the immigration laws. Once the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, Mr. McCain has seen his poll numbers dwindle as conservative activists cried "amnesty" over the bipartisan legislation he co-sponsored that offered a path to citizenship for people here illegally. His campaign blames fallout over the issue for contributing to his lagging fund-raising.

Immigrant Bill Dies in Senate; Defeat for Bush

Breitbart.com

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush's immigration plan to legalize as many as 12 million unlawful immigrants while fortifying the border collapsed in the Senate on Thursday, crushing both parties' hopes of addressing the volatile issue before the 2008 elections. The Senate vote to drive a stake through the delicate compromise was a stinging setback for Bush—who had made reshaping immigration laws a centerpiece of his domestic agenda—engineered by members of his own party. It could carry heavy political consequences for Republicans and Democrats, many of whom were eager to show they could act on a complex issue of great interest to the public.

Doubts Emerge About Passage of Immigration Bill

New York Times

WASHINGTON, June 27 — The Senate immigration bill’s chances of passage seemed in doubt late this afternoon as several lawmakers signaled that they were undecided about supporting the legislation. The bill is in more danger “than I thought a few hours ago,” Senator Christopher Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, told Bloomberg News. His comments came after the Senate voted down several attempts to make the immigration bill stricter, including one that would have barred illegal immigrants from a chance for eventual citizenship. But the bill’s very fate was in doubt as senators who voted Tuesday to allow the bill to go forward said today that they were either now against allowing a vote on final passage or were inclined that way.

Immigration bill survives

Boston Herald

A landmark immigration bill is far from a done deal, still, yesterday’s test vote in the Senate was a huge victory for the forces of reason. The Senate voted 64-35 to revive the compromise bill - a carefully constructed, precariously balanced combination of enhanced border security, a guest worker program and a path to citizenship for some 12 million illegal aliens living today within the nation’s borders.

Pivotal Vote Looms on Immigration

ABC News

Senators urging the passage of a bill that would legalize millions of illegal immigrants hope to revive bipartisan support for the embattled measure and push it to passage by week's end. President Bush's team is predicting victory Tuesday on the effort to allow the bill among the president's top domestic priorities to go forward.

Senators tout immigration bill before crucial vote

CNN.com

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senators pushing a new immigration policy appealed Sunday to wavering supporters on the eve of a renewed debate on whether to grant residency to some 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. A fragile compromise failed in the Senate in early June, then resurrected after bipartisan negotiations with the White House. The bill awaits a crucial test vote this week. With several senators distancing themselves from the proposal, the outcome is too close to call. "We'll see if between the two parties we have 60 votes" needed to keep the bill moving toward a final vote, said Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California. The measure would tighten borders, require workplace verification and create a guest worker program. It also would lay out a way by which the estimated 12 million people illegally in the U.S. could gain legal status and work toward citizenship.

Hutchison to vote against reviving stalled immigration bill

Houston Chronicle

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, who has been under intense pressure from the White House and Republican leadership to support a sweeping immigration overhaul, nevertheless announced today that she will vote against reviving the legislation when it returns to the Senate floor next week. She was joined today by the state's other senator, Republican John Cornyn, who had been expected by the bill's supporters to take such a stance. They had aggressively lobbied Hutchison in hopes of adding her vote to the 60 necessary to revive the stalled legislation. "I could not support (bringing the bill to a vote) in its present position," Hutchison, criticizing the legislation as amnesty for illegal immigrants, said today.

GOP challenges Bush on immigration reform

AM New York

House Republicans, in opposition to Senate bill, also detail ways they think U.S. has failed on border and law enforcement. With no chance of passage, the measure underlines the party's split. WASHINGTON — In a sharp rebuke to President Bush, House Republicans unveiled legislation Tuesday that would bar illegal immigrants from gaining legal status in the U.S., require tamper-proof birth certificates for Americans and make English the nation's official language. The measure's core principles include gaining control of the border and enforcing existing immigration laws. It does not provide a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, as the Bush plan does.

Reluctant Dems on Immigration Reform

Time

Congressman Heath Shuler was the odd man out at a press conference last month rallying opposition to then not-yet-finalized Senate immigration bill — the other seven legislators facing the media that day were all Republicans. But the freshman North Carolina Democrat, one of only six members of his party in the 104-member House Immigration Reform Caucus, didn't mind being the lone Democrat on that panel: Elected with just 54 percent of the vote in 2006, his seat is a major Republican target in 2008, and the No. 1 issue he hears about when he goes home is immigration.

Sen. Reid fast-tracks revived immigration bill

Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — Senate leaders Monday relaunched a controversial proposal to overhaul the nation's immigration laws, offering a new version of legislation that faltered earlier this month. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) used his prerogatives as majority leader to reintroduce the bill and bypass the usual committee process, putting it on the calendar for quick consideration. A final vote is likely next week. "I applaud Sen. Reid's action to bring the immigration bill back to the floor and the determination of so many of our colleagues to do the challenging work we were elected to do," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the bill's leading Democratic proponent.

Immigration issue at a boil

Recordnet.com

Comprehensive immigration reform is in jeopardy because it is a complex compromise with too many moving parts and too many competing interests. Employers want a guest-worker program; unions want to kill it. Reformers want to introduce a point system that preferentially admits skilled and educated immigrants; immigrant groups naturally want to keep the existing family preference system. Liberals want legalization now; conservatives insist on enforcement "triggers" first. There is only one provision that has unanimous support: stronger border enforcement. I've seen senators stand up and object to the point system, to chain migration, to guest workers, to every and any idea in this bill - except one. I have yet to hear a senator stand up and say he or she is against better border enforcement.

Senate Leaders Agree to Revive Immigration Bill

New York Times

WASHINGTON, June 14 — Senate Democratic and Republican leaders announced on Thursday that they had agreed on a way to revive a comprehensive immigration bill that was pulled off the Senate floor seven days ago. The majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, and the minority leader, Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, said they expected the bill to return to the floor before the Fourth of July recess. In a joint statement, Mr. Reid and Mr. McConnell said: “We met this evening with several of the senators involved in the immigration bill negotiations. Based on that discussion, the immigration bill will return to the Senate floor after completion of the energy bill.”

Immigration issue still lacks a solution

Chicago Sun-Times

Harry Reid, the Senate's majority leader, affected 'umble and syrupy sadness about the Senate's inability to pass the immigration bill that he pulled from the floor last Thursday for a transparently meretricious reason. Saying time was too precious to expend on what would have been limited debate on a limited number of Republican amendments to the bill, he vowed: ''Everyone that's been home, there are two issues that are foremost in their minds: No. 1 is the Iraq war and No. 2 are gasoline prices. We're going to deal with that as soon as we finish with this immigration legislation.'' So the Senate took Friday off, wasted Monday in the predictable futility of failing to pass a nonbinding resolution expressing constitutionally irrelevant lack of confidence in the attorney general, then debated lowering gasoline prices -- or cooling the planet; or something -- by spending taxpayers' money to raise food prices. It took up legislation to quintuple the mandated use of mostly corn-based ethanol. For such silliness, Reid scuttled the bipartisan attempt to improve the eminently improvable immigration status quo.

Bush Pleads for GOP Immigration Support

Time

Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions stood up at Tuesday's lunch for Senate Republicans and baldly told President George W. Bush what was wrong with his immigration proposal: it would give amnesty to 12 million illegal immigrations, it would reduce illegal immigration by only 13%, and it doesn't go far enough to enforce border security. Bush acknowledged that Sessions, like many conservative Republicans, has serious issues with the immigration bill, but he also managed to diffuse the tension over the issue that has split his party for the last two years. "Even though we disagree on this bill, I look forward to being in Alabama," Bush joked to Sessions, whose fundraiser the President is due to attend in Alabama on Friday, and the room burst out laughing.

Bush to Push Immigration Bill at Capitol

Breitbart.com

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush, wading deeper into an issue that bitterly divides his party, hopes a personal appeal can help persuade skeptical Republicans to resurrect and pass his immigration bill. Over lunch Tuesday in the Capitol, Bush planned an effort to change enough minds among GOP senators to salvage one of his top domestic priorities. The measure, which legalizes up to 12 million unlawful immigrants and tightens border security, stalled last week in the face of broad Republican opposition. Bush "will talk about the fact that immigration reform is too important to let this opportunity pass, and this is the best opportunity that we have had in decades to reform the broken immigration system," said Scott Stanzel, a White House spokesman. It's the president's latest and most overt attempt to sell Congress on the immigration overhaul, which was shaped by his views and drafted by an unlikely liberal-to-conservative coalition in close consultation with two Cabinet secretaries.

Bush Renews Push to Save Immigration Bill

Wall Street Journal

Advocates of immigration overhaul still hope to gain Senate passage by August -- if a weakened President Bush can win over Republicans facing grass-roots conservative pressure to kill the bill. Majority Leader Harry Reid threw a monkey wrench into the bill's progress Thursday night by abruptly pulling the measure from the Senate floor after twice falling short of the votes needed to cut off debate. Mr. Bush must now redouble efforts to win over reluctant conservatives like fellow Texan Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison if he is to regain steam -- and have any hope of winning passage in the even more perilous House. This recovery process begins Tuesday, when the president is to come to the Capitol to meet with Senate Republicans. Traveling in Europe, Mr. Bush began calling key Republican players from his plane, including Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.), one of the main Republican architects of the compromise, and devoted his weekly radio address -- broadcast from Poland -- to the topic.

Deep Divisions Derail Immigration Bill

ABC News

The Senate divisions that derailed a White House-backed immigration bill for now, at least mirror the U.S. society's deep differences over the issue, according to polling data, lawmakers and analysts. Those gaps will challenge any effort to get the measure back on track. While most Senate Democrats appeared to back the bill, several liberal members said it did too little to keep immigrant families together and protect jobs for U.S.-born workers.

Immigration Deal Survives Senate Hurdles

ABC News

A proposed immigration overhaul narrowly survived several strong Senate challenges Wednesday, but it suffered a potentially deal-breaking setback early Thursday. Shortly after midnight, the Senate voted 49-48 to end a new temporary worker program after five years. The vote reversed the one-vote outcome on the same amendment offered both times by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. two weeks ago. Six senators switched their votes, reflecting the issue's political volatility.

Fate of Senate immigration bill in doubt

Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Republicans on Tuesday accused Democrats of trying to rush a vote on immigration reform, casting doubt on the fate of the White House-backed bill that would tighten border security and legalize millions of illegal immigrants. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he wanted to close debate on the bill by this week's end despite Republicans' objections, which could doom the fragile compromise legislation that backers say would help fix a broken immigration system through which millions of illegal immigrants have slipped into the United States.

Border Agents Warn Immigration Bill Will Compromise National Security

TownHall.com

A group of former Border Patrol Agents convened on Monday to warn U.S. senators that the current immigration bill would compromise national security if signed into law. Chairman of the National Association of Border Patrol Officers Kent Lundgren said, “First and most dangerous, is the fact that there will be no meaningful criminal or terrorist record checks of the applicants. If the amnesty passes, we will legalize them despite what past history they may have. Despite what the Administration and Congress say about record checks to ease voters’ minds, they are lying about it.”

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