Senate Immigration Deal Falls Apart
Partisan Bickering Over Amendments Sidetracks Pact On Immigration Bill
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Play CBS Video Video Senate Deadlock On Immigration CBS News RAW: A compromise immigration bill stalls in the Senate due to a dispute over adding amendments to the bill. Sens. Kennedy, Lieberman and McCain react.
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Video Immigration Bill Stalls There is still no end in sight for a national immigration bill. As Alison Harmelin reports from Capitol Hill, senators have failed to pass what not long ago seemed to be a "breakthrough compromise."
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Video Compromise On Immigration? The long debate over illegal immigrants may finally be nearing a resolution, at least in the Senate. But as Jim Axelrod reports, the problem will be getting the House to go along.
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Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, second from left, talks to reporters on Capitol Hill on Friday, April 7, 2006. after the Senate failed to agree on an immigration bill. From left are: Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Reid, Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., and Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)
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Senators announced a compromise on immigration legislation, Thursday, April 6, 2006. A day later, the deal fell apart. From left: Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen.Robert Menendez, D-N.J. (AP Photo)
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Demonstrators rally outside the courthouse in Louisville, Ky., on April 4, 2006, in favor of reform to allow illegal aliens to have a chance to obtain legal status. (AP)
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Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony, right, with Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers union, and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, left, at a Mass to pray for immigration reform. (AP/Pool/Los Angeles Times)
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Interactive Immigration And Naturalization Who's coming to America? Find out what's being done to screen for terrorists and take a citizenship quiz.
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Photo Essay Border Insecurity The slow, sensitive path to tighter security along America's borders.
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Interactive The 109th Congress Meet the leaders and follow the action in the House and Senate.
The legislation is designed to enhance border security and regulate the flow of future temporary workers as well as affect the lives of illegal immigrants. It separates illegal immigrants now in the U.S. into three categories.
Illegal immigrants here more than five years could work for six years and apply for legal permanent residency without having to leave the country. Those here two years to five years would have to go to border entry points sometime in next three years, but could immediately return as temporary workers.
Those here less than two years would have to leave and wait in line for visas to return.
The bill also provides a new program for 1.5 million temporary agriculture industry workers over five years. It includes provisions requiring employers to verify they've hired legal workers and calls for a "virtual" fence of surveillance cameras, sensors and other technology to monitor the nearly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexican border.
Demonstrations in support of the compromise were planned for Monday across the nation, including one in Washington that organizers claimed would draw 100,000 people.
The acrimony in the Senate at Thursday night's end was a sharp contrast to the accolades 14 members of both parties traded just hours earlier when they announced their compromise.
Frist called it tragic "that we in all likelihood are not going to be able to address a problem that directly affects the American people."
As members of Congress return home for spring break, the first thing many will see — from Los Angeles to the nation's capital — next Monday are thousands of protesters, Borger reports. They'll be demonstrating in support of a path to citizenship for the 11 million illegal immigrants now in the country.
The House has passed legislation limited to border security, but Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and other leaders have signaled their willingness in recent days to broaden the bill in compromise talks with the Senate.
However, Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., said anything with what he called amnesty would not win approval from a majority in the House.
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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