February 11, 2009 4:38 PM
- Text
Immigration Bill Dies In Senate
(CBS/AP)
President Bush's immigration plan to legalize as many as 12 million unlawful immigrants while fortifying the border collapsed in the Senate on Thursday, crushing both parties' hopes of addressing the volatile issue before the 2008 elections.
The Senate vote that drove a stake through the delicate compromise was a stinging setback for Mr. Bush, who has made reshaping immigration laws a central element of his domestic agenda.
Republicans backing the bill tried to bring their colleagues on board by arguing that the president badly needed a domestic victory, reports CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson. But in the end, senators in his own party turned their back on the president.
The defeat could carry heavy political consequences for Republicans and Democrats, many of whom were eager to show they could act on a complex issue of great interest to the public.
"Legal immigration is one of the top concerns of the American people, and Congress' failure to act on it is a disappointment," a grim-faced president said after an appearance in Newport, R.I. "A lot of us worked hard to see if we couldn't find common ground. It didn't work."
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., his party's lead negotiator, called the defeat "enormously disappointing for Congress and for the country." But, he added: "We will be back. This issue is not going away."
Still, lawmakers in both parties said further action was unlikely this year, dooming its prospects as the political strains of a crowded presidential contest get louder.
"I don't see where the political will is there for this issue to be dealt with," said Martinez, who helped develop the bill.
House Democratic leaders signaled they had little appetite for taking up an issue that bitterly divides both parties and has tied up the Senate for weeks.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, who heads the House Judiciary subcommittee that was to write a version of the bill, said the Senate's inability to move forward "effectively ends comprehensive immigration reform efforts" for the next year and a half.
"The Senate voted for the status quo," the California Democrat said in a statement.
The vote already had led to partisan finger-pointing.
Howard Dean, the Democratic Party chairman, said it was "a reminder of why the American people voted Republicans out in 2006 and why they'll vote against them in 2008."
The measure was the product of a liberal-to-conservative alliance led by Kennedy and Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., that forged an immigration compromise intended to withstand challenges from the left and right.
They advocated the resulting measure as an imperfect but necessary fix to the current system, in which millions of illegal immigrants use forged documents or lapsed visas to live and work in the U.S.
The proposal would have made those millions eligible for lawful status while tightening border security and creating an employee verification system to weed out illegal workers from U.S. jobs.
The bill also would have set up a temporary worker program and a system to base future legal immigration more heavily on employment criteria, rather than family ties.
Ultimately, though, what came to be known as their "grand bargain" commanded only lukewarm support among important constituencies in both parties. That was no match for the vehement and vocal opposition of Republican conservatives, who derided it as amnesty.
The Senate vote that drove a stake through the delicate compromise was a stinging setback for Mr. Bush, who has made reshaping immigration laws a central element of his domestic agenda.
Republicans backing the bill tried to bring their colleagues on board by arguing that the president badly needed a domestic victory, reports CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson. But in the end, senators in his own party turned their back on the president.
The defeat could carry heavy political consequences for Republicans and Democrats, many of whom were eager to show they could act on a complex issue of great interest to the public.
"Legal immigration is one of the top concerns of the American people, and Congress' failure to act on it is a disappointment," a grim-faced president said after an appearance in Newport, R.I. "A lot of us worked hard to see if we couldn't find common ground. It didn't work."
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., his party's lead negotiator, called the defeat "enormously disappointing for Congress and for the country." But, he added: "We will be back. This issue is not going away."
Still, lawmakers in both parties said further action was unlikely this year, dooming its prospects as the political strains of a crowded presidential contest get louder.
"I believe that until another election occurs, or until something happens in the body politic, that what occurred today was fairly final," said Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., the GOP chairman.
CBS News Poll: Immigration
"I don't see where the political will is there for this issue to be dealt with," said Martinez, who helped develop the bill.
House Democratic leaders signaled they had little appetite for taking up an issue that bitterly divides both parties and has tied up the Senate for weeks.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, who heads the House Judiciary subcommittee that was to write a version of the bill, said the Senate's inability to move forward "effectively ends comprehensive immigration reform efforts" for the next year and a half.
"The Senate voted for the status quo," the California Democrat said in a statement.
The vote already had led to partisan finger-pointing.
Howard Dean, the Democratic Party chairman, said it was "a reminder of why the American people voted Republicans out in 2006 and why they'll vote against them in 2008."
The measure was the product of a liberal-to-conservative alliance led by Kennedy and Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., that forged an immigration compromise intended to withstand challenges from the left and right.
They advocated the resulting measure as an imperfect but necessary fix to the current system, in which millions of illegal immigrants use forged documents or lapsed visas to live and work in the U.S.
The proposal would have made those millions eligible for lawful status while tightening border security and creating an employee verification system to weed out illegal workers from U.S. jobs.
The bill also would have set up a temporary worker program and a system to base future legal immigration more heavily on employment criteria, rather than family ties.
Ultimately, though, what came to be known as their "grand bargain" commanded only lukewarm support among important constituencies in both parties. That was no match for the vehement and vocal opposition of Republican conservatives, who derided it as amnesty.
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