http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/16/opinion/16sat1.html

By this time next week, the left-for-dead Senate immigration bill should be up off the slab, lurching toward a final vote. It almost died when Republicans tried to weigh it down with too many harsh amendments. But now it’s coming back, thanks to some late attention from President Bush, a rush to repackage it as a super-heavy-duty enforcement measure — with $4.4 billion to be thrown at the border right away, as a good-faith gesture to the anti-amnesty crowd — and a deal to limit the amendments from both parties to only a couple dozen.

Congress’s struggle with immigration reform has been a horror movie, with one false ending after another, and there is still no telling what the monster will look like when the lights finally come up. People who have been watching through their fingers are right to be worried; the bill was harsh and has gotten harsher, a reflection of the rigidity of those who have vowed to kill any reform they consider amnesty.

Keep a close eye this week on the amendments that make the short list for the coming debate. This will be the main opportunity for senators who were not involved in the “grand bargainâ€