Sessions and Shelby oppose reformed Senate immigration bill

Posted by Birmingham News staff June 15, 2007 11:30 AM
WASHINGTON - President Bush's immigration reform plan, once near death, will get another chance under a deal to frontload it with $4.4 billion for border security, but it was not enough to sway either of Alabama's senators into voting for it, their offices said this morning.
And in a political twist, the controversial bill could hit the floor of the U.S. Senate on Thursday, the same day that Sen. Jeff Sessions is scheduled to be in Mobile with President Bush for a major fundraiser.
It would mean Bush could help Sessions raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for his campaign on exactly the same day that Sessions resumes his attack on Bush's most important domestic priority. So far, Sessions plans to do both.
"Senator Sessions is looking forward to the president coming to Mobile next Thursday," said Sessions' spokesman Stephen Boyd. "Right now we don't foresee any significant scheduling conflict between the event and any business in the Senate."
Once Senate leaders announced the bill's return, Sessions issued a statement restating his opposition.
"I can't fathom why they seem so obsessed to ram through this flawed bill that the American people overwhelming reject," he said. "While guaranteed expenditures can certainly help with enforcement, it will do little to change the fundamental flaws of this legislation."
Sessions has been critical of provisions to grant legal status, even temporarily, to immigrants who arrived illegally and too slow of a switch to an immigration system that values education and skill levels over family connections, among others.
Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., also still opposes legal status for the undocumented workers already here, according to a spokeswoman. Even a visit from Bush to the Senate Republicans on Tuesday didn't persuade him to vote for the bill.

There could be votes on about 20 amendments, half Republican and half Democrat, before the final vote.

Mary Orndorff

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