Interesting to see how Australia portrays what's going on eh?
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Bush law on aliens collapses
Correspondents in Washington
June 09, 2007

US President George W. Bush suffered a devastating setback to his top national reform agenda yesterday when a deal to grant legal status to 12 million illegal immigrants collapsed amid partisan rancour.
The Senate's Democratic leader, Harry Reid, withdrew the landmark and controversial measure after members voted for the second time in the day not to move it towards a final vote.

After tense hours of brinkmanship between Republicans and Democrats, only 45 members of the 100-seat Senate voted to limit further debate on the measure, 15 short of the total needed for it to proceed. Fifty senators voted against.

Senator Reid forced the vote, saying that the Senate needed to pass the bill and move on to debating energy reform and the war in Iraq, after two weeks of work on the immigration bill.

Republicans complained that his manoeuvre would not allow them enough time to offer amendments to the legislation, a key second-term priority for Mr Bush.

Democrats, however, accused some Republicans of offering repeated "killer amendments" to make the bill collapse.

Despite the setback, Senator Reid vowed to pass an immigration reform bill, but added: "We are finished with this for the time being."

"We are very close. At some point we are going to do this."

Mr Bush, who has called for immigration changes since the outset of his presidency, has committed his administration to passing the bill, even criticising Republicans who denounce it.

Prospects for a future immigration deal making it through the Senate appeared uncertain, however, given antipathy to the measure from conservatives, pressure of other business, and partisan fighting between Republicans and Democrats.

The looming 2008 congressional and presidential elections also mean that unless the measure is brought up soon, it will get caught up in a political maelstrom.

Eleven Democrats, mostly from conservative western or southern states, voted against moving forward with the legislation. Seven Republicans voted with the Democratic leadership.

As senators traded blame for the failure of the vote, Senator Reid warned Mr Bush should pressure Republicans to vote for the bill, saying the President's second White House term was running out. "He has a relatively short time to help us with this piece of legislation," Senator Reid said.

"Let's have President Bush work with us on this. I want to work with him. I don't say that very often."

Republican leader Mitch McConnell said: "I think we are giving up on this bill too soon."

The immigration "grand bargain" was reached last month by a fragile bipartisan coalition of senators and the White House, and is aimed at bringing undocumented workers out of the shadows, establishing a merit-based points system for future immigrants and a low-wage temporary worker program.

It includes a border-security crackdown, punishments for employers who hire illegal immigrants and an attempt to wipe out a backlog of visa applications from those who have gone through legal immigration channels.

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