Immigrants Keep Up Pressure For Reform

Large Scale Protests Planned For Monday In Numerous Cities Nationwide

(CBS/AP)  Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., said on Face The Nation that "the conditions I think are so difficult right now and the two sides so far apart, it would be very, very surprising to me. I don't think there's more than a 60/40 chance, and 40 being the chance that it would actually get out of the Senate."

As for any bill that offers a guest worker program – which Tancredo terms as "amnesty" for illegal immigrants – the Colorado congressman said, "It sends a terrible message to every single person who has ever come in this country the right way."

House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the debate needed to be narrowed. "Until we begin to secure our borders and enforce our immigration laws, I don't think we ought to be talking about a more comprehensive approach," Boehner said on ABC's "This Week."

In his weekly radio address, President Bush Saturday said the deal fell apart when Minority Leader Harry Reid refused to permit votes on more than three Republican-backed amendments.

"I call on the Senate Minority Leader to end his blocking tactics and allow the Senate to do its work and pass a fair, effective immigration reform bill," the president said.

Reid shot back that Mr. Bush and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist "are flat-out wrong about what happened to the immigration bill," saying Democrats proved their commitment to a comprehensive, bipartisan measure by voting twice in favor of it.

"It was President Bush and Republicans in Congress who lacked the backbone to stand up to the extreme right wing of their party, filibustered reform twice in two days, and put partisan politics ahead of border security and immigration reform," Reid said.

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and other opponents have expressed frustration that they were unable to gain votes on proposals to toughen enforcement or to leave immigration policy unchanged until the border had been made secure.

The bill would have provided for stronger border security, regulated the future entry of foreign workers and created a complex set of regulations for the estimated 11 million immigrants illegally in the United States.

Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he would have trouble with provisions providing legal status for illegal immigrants already here. He called the Senate plan a "bureaucracy of rubber stamps" that rewards people who break the law.

"With the intelligence reports we have of terrorists trying to be smuggled into the country ... we cannot be doing anything which is going to encourage more illegals to come into the country," said King, R-N.Y., who appeared with Specter on Fox News.

"The Senate, I think, was, quite frankly, intimidated by having hundreds of thousands of people in the streets waving flags," said King, "but I don't think we should pass legislation or devise legislation based on how many people you can get out into the street."