WASHINGTON — The Senate defeated a measure Tuesday that would have made it all but impossible for illegal immigrants to become permanent legal residents, a step toward citizenship, under the bipartisan immigration bill.
The amendment would have required illegal immigrants to apply for permanent visas, or green cards, under the same point-based system the bill would establish for all future immigrants, a change that would have effectively kept them perpetually at the end of the line of green card applicants.
The sponsor, Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.), said the amendment would create a "level playing field" for all immigrants, but Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) countered that it would change the core framework of the bill.
In their first day of debate after a weeklong recess, lawmakers considered two amendments that would reshape the bill's temporary-worker program. One measure, which passed, would ensure Americans are recruited for jobs first. A second, which did not come to a vote, would eliminate the bill's requirement that program participants leave for a year after every two years of work.
Senators also weighed but did not vote on another measure that would require all illegal immigrants who gain legal status under the bill to buy a minimum level of health insurance, an effort to ease the burden on hospitals and clinics faced with uninsured patients.
The chamber also voted on two unrelated amendments: Senators defeated a measure that would have required voters to show photo identification and passed another that would authorize studies of the experiences of European Americans and Jewish refugees during World War II.
Debate was interrupted by an extended tribute to Sen. Craig Thomas (R-Wyo.), who died Monday of leukemia and whose desk was draped in black cloth and marked with a large bouquet of white carnations, white Gerbera daisies and red roses. A Senate exodus to attend Thomas' funeral may delay a final vote on the immigration bill, the timing of which prompted a clash between Republicans and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
Reid set a vote for Thursday that would limit debate, overriding Republican objections. He insisted that the Senate had pressing business on Iraq and energy to deal with and that lawmakers had to move forward.
"This is a bill that will never, ever make a majority of the Republicans happy. It doesn't matter what we do," Reid said. "There are efforts made to stall this bill and when that happens, the only thing we can do is go by the Senate rules and procedures and move on."
