Senate forces align with Bush on immigration

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Tuesday won crucial backing on immigration from the Senate, which rejected a call to secure the nation’s borders before tackling other concerns such as citizenship for millions of men and women in the country illegally.

But the battle over immigration was far from over. The president's victory Tuesday came on an amendment to the Senate immigration bill, but lawmakers are expected to vote on many more into next week, raising the possibility that the legislation could change significantly by then. In addition, Bush still doesn't have solid support from many House Republicans who oppose giving illegal immigrants citizenship.

Bush and his supporters are pushing a comprehensive strategy on a volatile election-year issue that has divided the Republican Party. The Senate measure provides greater border security by sending 6,000 National Guard troops to fight illegal immigration, establishes a new guest worker program and offers an eventual chance at citizenship for most of the estimated 11 million to 12 million immigrants in the country illegally.

In Tuesday's 55-40 vote, the Senate rejected an appeal by Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., to require that the border with Mexico be secured before other immigration law changes could take place.

Isakson said that anything less would amount to “a wink and a nod one more time to those who would come here” unlawfully.

But Republican and Democratic supporters of the sweeping Senate bill said Isakson’s approach would derail the approach that Bush backed in Monday’s prime-time national speech from the Oval Office. “We have to have a comprehensive approach if we’re going to gain control of the borders,” said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.

In all, 36 Democrats and 18 Republicans joined with one independent to torpedo the amendment. Thirty-three Republicans and seven Democrats supported it.

Eager to blunt any political fallout from opposing Isakson’s proposal, the bill’s sponsors countered with an alternative of their own. Backed by Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., it said immigration changes envisioned in the legislation could proceed if the president declared they were in the national security interests of the United States. It passed, 79-16.

The Senate cast its first votes on the immigration bill as Bush renewed his call for Congress to act. “The objective is, on the one hand, protect our borders; and, on the other hand, never lose sight of the thing that makes America unique which is, we’re a land of immigrants and that we’re not going to discriminate against people,” he said at a news conference with Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

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