Senators extend immigration work to June

updated 8:04 p.m. ET May 21, 2007

WASHINGTON - Senate leaders on Monday gave themselves an extension until June on what President Bush and lawmakers in both parties say is one of their most important assignments for the year: a broad immigration overhaul.

The reprieve gives the Senate more time for what promises to be a volatile debate on a bipartisan compromise that would give an estimated 12 million unlawful immigrants legal status.

“This country deserves it,” Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said of the delay. He had previously set a Memorial Day deadline for passage.

The issue carries heavy political consequences for both parties. It’s a top priority for Bush, who considers it a defining element of his legacy, and for congressional Democrats who are eager to count it as one of their accomplishments at the helm of Congress.

The measure, which also tightens border security and workplace enforcement measures, unites a group of influential Senate liberals, centrists and conservatives, but it has drawn criticism from across the political spectrum.

“This is not going to go anywhere unless we have a full and thorough debate of at least two weeks,” said Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader.

The Senate will debate the deal this week and return to it after a weeklong holiday break.

The bipartisan compromise cleared its first hurdle Monday with a bipartisan Senate vote to begin debate on a separate immigration measure. Still, it faces significant obstacles as lawmakers seek dozens of modifications to its key elements.

Republicans want to make the bill tougher on the nation’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. Democrats want to change a new temporary worker program and reorder priorities in a merit-based system for future immigration that weights employability over family ties.

Kennedy-Kyl coalition
The unlikely coalition that brokered the deal, led by Sens. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., is plotting to protect the agreement from “deal-breaker” changes that would sap its support. The group will hold daily meetings starting Tuesday to determine whether proposed revisions would sink what they are calling their “grand bargain.”

“We have to try our very best to work together to get something that will actually pass,” Kyl said.

Among the first changes to be debated will be a proposal by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., to shrink the temporary worker program created by the compromise plan. Some lawmakers in both parties consider the initiative, which would provide at least 400,000 guest worker visas annually, too large.

Others charge it’s impractical and unfair to immigrants, because it would allow them to stay only temporarily in the U.S. without guaranteeing them a chance to gain legal status.

“We must not create a law that guarantees a permanent underclass, people who are here to work in low-wage, low-skilled jobs but do not have the chance to put down roots or benefit from the opportunities of American citizenship,” Reid said.

Reid called the measure a “starting point,” but said he had reservations about it.

Conservative critics denounced the proposal’s quick granting of legal status to millions of unlawful immigrants.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said the measure’s so-called “point system” doesn’t do enough to guarantee that future immigration will serve the country’s economic needs.

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