Senate adds curbs to immigration plan

WASHINGTON - The Senate voted Wednesday to exclude illegal immigrants convicted of a felony or three misdemeanors from a chance at remaining in the United States under what critics say is an amnesty program.

The unanimous vote on an amendment that before Easter had been considered a “poison pill” provided added momentum for broad immigration bill that would give legal status to millions of illegal immigrants and put many of them on a path toward citizenship.

The amendment by two of the bill’s leading opponents, Republican Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona and John Cornyn of Texas, was softened Tuesday in negotiations with the legislation’s supporters. The sponsors agreed to include exceptions for hardship cases and those who didn’t know a deportation order had been issued for them, winning the additional support.

“We want to keep those who could harm us, the criminal element, out,” said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., one of the authors of the bill. “Those who could benefit us ought to remain.”

Critics of the legislation aren’t giving up, however, and planned to keep trying to reshape the bill.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., offered an amendment Wednesday that would erect more fencing along the nearly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexican border, an idea similar to one in an enforcement-only bill passed by the House in December.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said Wednesday that lawmakers increasingly realize the need for a comprehensive plan that goes beyond trying to stop people at the border.

“If you just try to build a wall 30 feet high and 2,000 miles long, it will be insufficient. People will go up over it, around it, in order to get a job in this country,” Frist said on CBS’ “The Early Show.”

Lobbying lawmakers
Meanwhile, immigration advocates poured into Washington by the thousands to lobby lawmakers and hold a late afternoon rally within site of the Capitol and the White House.

The Senate bill authorizes additional spending on border security, a guest worker program, an eventual opportunity at citizenship for most of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the country, and tougher enforcement of laws prohibiting hiring of illegal workers. Senate passage appears likely by Memorial Day.

Opponents of granting legal status to most of the nation’s illegal immigrants planned other amendments but said the big fight will occur when negotiators try to merge the Senate bill with the House’s enforcement-only legislation.

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