Thread: Pivotal Senate vote on immigration passes

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19431554/

WASHINGTON - The Senate voted Tuesday to jump-start a stalled immigration measure to legalize millions of unlawful immigrants.

President Bush said the bill offered a "historic opportunity for Congress to act," and appeared optimistic about its passage by week's end.

The pivotal test-vote was 64-35 to revive the divisive legislation. It still faces formidable obstacles in the Senate, including bitter opposition by GOP conservatives and attempts by some waverers in both parties to revise its key elements.

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Supporters needed 60 votes to scale procedural hurdles and return to the bill. A similar test-vote earlier this month found just 45 supporters, only seven of them Republicans.

Tuesday's outcome was far from conclusive, however. The measure still must overcome another make-or-break vote as early as Thursday that will also require the backing of 60 senators, and there is no guarantee that it will ultimately attract even the simple majority it needs to pass.

The Senate was preparing to begin voting as early as Tuesday afternoon on some two dozen amendments that have the potential to either sap its support or draw new backers.

Republicans and Democrats alike are deeply conflicted over the measure, which also creates a temporary worker program, strengthens border security and institutes a new system for weeding out illegal immigrants from workplaces.

Conservative critics who paint the measure as amnesty for lawbreakers, however, said their efforts to stop the legislation were gaining momentum.

Major provisions of the immigration deal

• Introduction
• Current illegal immigrants
• Border security
• Workplace enforcement
• Guest workers
• Future immigrants


Introduction
Click a category on the left to see how the proposed immigration reform would affect that category



Source: Associated Press • Print this



Bush has mounted an unusually personal effort to diffuse bitter Republican opposition to the bill, appearing at a Senate party lunch earlier this month and dispatching two Cabinet secretaries to take up near-constant residence on Capitol Hill to push the compromise.

Arm-twisting process
Still, after a chaotic several weeks in which the measure survived several near-death experiences, it remains buffeted by intraparty divisions. Bush's aides say they are lobbying hard to persuade Republicans that the measure deserves support.

"We're in the phase now, as (senators) head into the final tally of the votes, of making the case and explaining why we think the status quo is unacceptable," Kaplan said.

Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the Senate's top Democrat is hopeful that there will be enough converts to push the bill forward.

How immigration visa priorities would change

• Introduction
• Current law
• First eight years under proposal
• After eight years


Introduction
An agreement on overhauling the nation's immigration laws would eventually shift the priority on granting new immigration visas from reuniting families to providing more skilled workers for U.S. employers.
Click an option on the left to see how the proposal would work.



Source: Associated Press • Print this



Those against the plan to provide a path to citizenship to illegal immigrants were undeterred. "The enthusiasm for this bill, even the votes for this bill, have been eroding," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., a leading critic.

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said proponents are engaging in "arm-twisting" to corral support, and he appealed to a skeptical public to ratchet up pressure on their senators to kill it.

"We do still have a shot to stop it, but it's only going to be if the American people raise the level of their voices in the next 24 hours," DeMint said.

'Clay pigeon' maneuver
The legislation faces still more trials even if it scales its initial obstacle, with votes looming on amendments that could alter key parts of the measure.

Reid is planning to use a rare maneuver known as a "clay pigeon" to advance a set package of Republican and Democratic amendments and lay the groundwork for quick votes on them.

DeMint, Sessions and other conservative foes of the bill wrote Reid on Monday complaining that the procedure would "shut off the debate" and "silence amendments," thus trampling senators' rights.

In a pointed response, Reid conceded the procedure was unusual, but he called it necessary to block a Republican filibuster. The move has the support, Reid wrote, of their own GOP leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and the White House.

Several of the Republican amendments slated for votes would make the bill tougher on unlawful immigrants, while those by Democrats would make it easier on those seeking to immigrate legally based solely on family ties.


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Particularly worrisome to supporters, including the Bush administration, is a bipartisan amendment by Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Max Baucus, D-Mont., that would change the bill's new program for weeding out illegal employees from U.S. workplaces.

The amendment would free employers from a mandate to check the identities of all their employees and require them to verify only new workers and those the government has a reason to believe are illegal immigrants. It would allow employees to present any state-issued drivers license as proof of identity, rather than requiring the nationally standardized "REAL ID," which some states have not adopted.

Kaplan said the amendment is the only one the administration is actively lobbying against.

"We've got our work cut out for us," he said.

"We're in the phase now, as (senators) head into the final tally of the votes, of making the case and explaining why we think the status quo is unacceptable," Kaplan said.

Kaplan, you should be explaining to the American people why boosh now thinks the status quo is unaccetable, when boosh junior and senior, and clinton haven't done a damn thing about this issue in the past 20 years.