Thread: CNN: Plenty of hurdles ahead for immigration bill

Plenty of hurdles ahead for immigration bill

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate voted on Tuesday to bring back President Bush's immigration reform bill from the dead, but any of the two dozen amendments now to be debated could kill the deal for this year.

Proponents of the bill received four more than the 60 votes necessary to send the legislation to the floor for debate after several pleas from Bush over the last two weeks, including a rare trip to Capitol Hill to twist a few arms and a final speech Tuesday morning.

"I view this as a historic opportunity for Congress to act," Bush told an audience of supporters at the Eisenhower office building. "This is a moment for people who have been elected to come together, focus on a problem and show the American people we can fix a problem."

The bill includes $4.4 billion for border protection, work-site enforcement and tamper-proof ID cards; sets up a temporary worker program to address the needs of employers who rely on migrants; and requires that migrants learn English. It also offers a path to citizenship to the estimated 12 million people in the United States illegally.

One of the bill's architects, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, called Tuesday's vote "a major step forward for our national security, for our economy, and for our humanity."

"We did the right thing today because we know the American people sent us here to act on our most urgent problems. We know they will not stand for small political factions getting in the way," Kennedy said in a statement.

A similar test vote earlier this month received only 45 votes, and only nine of them from Republicans. On Tuesday, 24 Republicans joined 39 Democrats and Independent Sen. Joseph Lieberman to proceed with debate.

Bush said that Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff will work with senators to reach a compromise.

"We are certainly pleased with the early vote on the motion to proceed," White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters shortly after the Senate decision. He said he looks forward to the debates.

Opponents of the bill say that the path to citizenship amounts to amnesty for those who entered the country illegally. The 24 amendments to be considered -- 12 for Democrats and 12 for Republicans, seek to change some of the more controversial parts of the legislation.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, one of the bill's more vocal opponents said he is still concerned about enforcing tougher laws.

"My concern is the gulf between the promise being made to the American people and the likelihood that the promise will be carried out," Cornyn said before the vote. "The White House said this is of no concern because they will declare them ineligible and deport them.

"The question Americans are asking is, 'Will they? Can they,' " Cornyn said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said the Senate had to address the issue.

"The stakes are too high for inaction," Reid said. We are the Senate of the United States. People said, 'The issue is too complex, let's not do it.' We have to take hard votes.

"Mr. President, we have an immigration system that is broken and needs to be fixed. That's what we're trying to do is fix this," Reid said.

Debate could start as early as Tuesday afternoon and a vote on whether to cut off debate and take a full vote of the Senate could come by Thursday.

Between now and then, senators will consider the two dozen amendments that seek to change key parts of the bill.

Even if the bill gets out of the Senate, House Republicans on Tuesday morning said they didn't see much chance of it passing there.

Behind closed doors at their weekly meeting, House Republicans overwhelmingly decided that they oppose the Senate bill, but they stopped short of taking an official position.

According to Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, who supports the Senate bill, the House Republican Conference debated a resolution meant to influence the Senate's debate which read: "Resolved that the House Republican Conference disapproves of the Senate immigration bill."

Flake and other supporters tried to table debate and postpone the discussion, but that motion failed 28-83 with one member voting present.

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said, "It's clear that there is a large number of House Republicans who have serious concerns with the Senate bill."

Boehner said he did notified the White House about the measure, and while the administration didn't oppose it, "I won't say they were happy about it," he said.

The measure was not approved at the morning meeting because there wasn't a sufficient number of members present to vote. Republican leaders hope to reconvene and officially vote on the measure later this week.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Monday showed 47 percent of Americans were opposed the bill, while 30 percent supported it and 19 percent said they didn't know enough about it to make a judgment. The poll's sampling error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

However, the poll found a significant division among opponents of the immigration plan. About 28 percent said they were opposed because it did too much to help illegal immigrants, but 15 percent said they were opposed because it did too little.

So while much of the opposition to the bill has come from those who believe it is too soft on illegal immigration, the poll found that 45 percent of Americans either support the bill or want it to be more immigrant-friendly, compared to 28 percent who feel it's already too immigrant-friendly.

CNN's Dana Bash and Evan Glass contributed to this report.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/06/26/ ... tion.next/

Anyone who believes the $4.4B will be used for border security needs to have their head examined. Bush is not going to do it.

Originally Posted by Beckyal

Anyone who believes the $4.4B will be used for border security needs to have their head examined. Bush is not going to do it.

His record speaks for itself. Bush is not qualified to remain in the White House.