Senate adds curbs to immigration plan

“Ultimately we all understand where this bill is going to be written. It’s going to be written in the conference committee between the House and the Senate,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

House Republicans remained unyielding in their opposition to legalization.

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“Thinly veiled attempts to promote amnesty cannot be tolerated,” said Rep. Tom Price of Georgia. “While America is a nation of immigrants, we are also a nation of laws, and rewarding those who break our laws not only dishonors the hard work of those who came here legally but does nothing to fix our current situation.”

Bill backers on Tuesday defeated two amendments that would have gutted the Senate bill. In votes that crossed party lines, the Senate rejected 55-40 a requirement that the border be secured before other immigration changes are made. They also voted 69-28 to scuttle a Democratic amendment to exclude foreigners and recent illegal immigrants from a new guest worker program.

The Senate also approved on a voice vote an amendment reducing the number of foreigners who could participate in the guest worker program annually from at least 325,000 to no more than 200,000. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., also won approval for his proposal to add 1,000 more Border Patrol agents this year, 100 helicopters and 250 power boats.

President Bush gave the debate momentum by announcing in a prime-time speech Monday a plan to deploy 6,000 National Guard troops to southwestern border states to support the Border Patrol.

The proposal to use Guard troops in the four states bordering Mexico drew mixed reaction in Congress. Pentagon officials insisted the duty would not overtax the guard or interfere with preparations for combat, but some in Congress worried it would stretch the Guard too thin.

Bush’s new press secretary, Tony Snow, said Wednesday he thinks a compromise can be reached on the complex legislation.

“I think the answer is yes,” Snow said when asked on NBC’s “Today” show if a deal can be achieved. “In point of fact, what the president is proposing in terms of border security is more aggressive” than what the House has proposed, he said.

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