Amendments to dilute immigration bill are defeated
WASHINGTON — Supporters of a comprehensive immigration bill repelled a series of attacks on it on the Senate floor this week, significantly raising the prospects that the Senate will pass the controversial measure.
On Thursday, the fragile bipartisan coalition behind the bill thwarted a bid to limit the temporary-worker program to five years. It was a one-vote victory that supporters interpreted as a signal they would be able to parry efforts to undermine the bill.
"At the end of this week, we are still together and we're moving forward to accomplish what's going to be tough and fair and practical, realistic immigration reform for our country," said Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), one of the 12 Democrats and Republicans who negotiated the compromise bill.
The measure -- dubbed the "grand bargain" -- would provide a path to citizenship for the estimated 12 million workers now in the U.S. illegally but would reduce the number of green cards available to family members and increase the number for workers with needed skills. The bill has been denounced by some on the right as "amnesty" and by some on the left as a measure that would take jobs from Americans.
President Bush, who has endorsed the compromise, on Thursday used his harshest language so far to denounce members of his party who had derided what would be the first major immigration overhaul since 1986.
"Anything short of kicking them out, as far as some people are concerned, is called amnesty," Bush said during a Rose Garden news conference. "You can't kick them out. Anybody who advocates trying to dig out 12 million people who have been in our society for a while is sending a signal to the American people that's just not real."
The amendment to put a time limit on the temporary-worker program was defeated 49-48 Thursday only when Sen. Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii) changed his vote after an entreaty from Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the bill's main Democratic sponsor. The program, which the Senate scaled back earlier this week, would allow up to 200,000 foreign workers a year into the country.
The amendment split California's senators, both Democrats: Dianne Feinstein, a member of the bill's bipartisan group of sponsors, voted against the amendment and Barbara Boxer voted for it.
"American workers are going to be hurt by this," Boxer said before the vote. "This is a modest amendment. This is a sensible amendment."
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