WASHINGTON (AP) _ A proposed immigration overhaul narrowly
survived several strong Senate challenges Wednesday, but it
suffered a potentially deal-breaking setback early Thursday.
Shortly after midnight, the Senate voted 49-48 to end a new
temporary worker program after five years. The vote reversed the
one-vote outcome on the same amendment _ offered both times by Sen.
Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. _ two weeks ago. Six senators switched their
votes, reflecting the issue’s political volatility.
The temporary worker program is crucial to many business groups,
and the bill’s backers vowed to try on Thursday to undo the damage.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said he or his allies would slightly
reword Dorgan’s amendment and hope for a change of heart by one or
more senators who “don’t want to kill the bill.”
Dorgan, who contends that immigrants take many jobs Americans
could fill, said no one in the debate “is talking about the impact
on American workers.”
“There are a lot of people here who want jobs and can’t find
jobs, and find downward pressure on their incomes,” Dorgan said.
The vote on his amendment brought a jarring close to a long day
that, until then, had pleased proponents of the immigration bill, a
priority for President Bush.
They first had turned back a Republican bid to reduce the number
of illegal immigrants who could gain lawful status. They later
rejected two high-profile Democratic amendments.
One would have postponed the bill’s shift to an emphasis on
education and skills among visa applicants as opposed to family
connections. The other, offered by Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., would
have ended a new point system for those seeking permanent resident
“green cards” after five years rather than 14 years.
All three amendments were seen as potentially fatal blows to the
fragile coalition backing the bill, which remains under attack from
the right and left. The bill would tighten borders, hike penalties
for those who hire illegals, and give many of the country’s
estimated 12 million illegal immigrants a pathway to legal status.
While the Dorgan amendment marked the biggest setback for the
bill’s advocates, there were others. They failed to defeat a
Republican proposal to give law enforcement agents access to
rejected visa applications, which could lead to the arrest and
deportation of some illegal immigrants who otherwise might escape
detection.
They also failed, by a 64-33 vote, to block a provision by Sen.
James Inhofe, R-Okla., making English “the national language.”
Opponents called the measure demeaning and said they would try to
kill it during House-Senate negotiations.
Specter said that, on balance, the coalition’s “grand
bargainers” felt they had a good day. If the Dorgan measure can be
overturned, he said, the bill will be in strong shape. …
A Senate source late last night but before it was all over said the votes just don’t seem to be their for cloture in the morning (still scheduled for then), which Reid has said would make him pull the bill. Republican Senate sources aren’t betting money on Reid being a man of his word “but who knows?”