By Stephen Dinan
The Washington Times
Wednesday, June 26, 2013

The immigration bill survived its biggest filibuster test Wednesday, signaling the measure is on a speedy path out of the Senate this week with the core of the deal intact: quick legal status for illegal immigrants, with full citizenship rights to come after more money is spent on border security.

The 67-31 vote to turn back a potential filibuster was shy of the 70 votes backers had hoped for, but is still well above the 60 needed to clear the Senate.

More stunning, every Democrat in the chamber voted for it — a major reversal from 2007, when Democrats and Republicans joined together to block the bill, with liberal senators saying the bill hurt workers.

“It is obvious a majority, a very large majority, a bipartisan majority of the Senate will support the immigration bill,” said Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Democrat.

Wednesday’s vote saw 13 Republicans join with Democrats, after the chamber first approved an amendment that would add 20,000 new Border Patrol agents to the southwest and would build nearly 350 miles of additional pedestrian fencing along the border, in many cases replacing vehicle barriers.

Many of those Republicans said they wanted to do whatever they could to ensure border security, pushing as far as they could go without crossing Democrats’ line in the sand, which was that illegal immigrants’ path to citizenship not be tied to specific results in reducing illegal immigration.

Instead, the bill’s triggers — the conditions that must be met before illegal immigrants eventually get citizenship — are tied to spending and to setting up systems, rather than measures of lower flows across the border.

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