Senate blocks immigration bill (cloture vote fails, 14 votes short, 53-46)

AP on Yahoo ^ | 6/28/07 | Charles Babington - ap

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON - The Senate drove a stake Thursday through President Bush's plan to legalize millions of unlawful immigrants, likely postponing major action on immigration until after the 2008 elections.

The bill's supporters fell 14 votes short of the 60 needed to limit debate and clear the way for final passage of the legislation, which critics assailed as offering amnesty to illegal immigrants. The vote was 46 to 53 in favor of limiting the debate.

Senators in both parties said the issue is so volatile that Congress is highly unlikely to revisit it this fall or next year, when the presidential election will increasingly dominate American politics.

A similar effort collapsed in the Congress last year, and the House has not bothered with an immigration bill this year, awaiting Senate action.

The vote was a stinging setback for Bush, who advocated the bill as an imperfect but necessary fix of current immigration practices in which many illegal immigrants use forged documents or lapsed visas to live and work in the United States.

It was a victory for Republican conservatives who strongly criticized the bill's provisions that would have established pathways to lawful status for many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. They were aided by talk radio and TV hosts who repeatedly attacked the bill and urged listeners to flood Congress with calls, faxes and e-mails.

The bill would have toughened border security and instituted a new system for weeding out illegal immigrants from workplaces. It would have created a new guest worker program and allowed millions of illegal immigrants to obtain legal status if they briefly returned home.

Bush, making a last-ditch bid to salvage the bill, called senators early Thursday morning to urge their support. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez approached senators as they entered and left the chamber shortly before the vote.

"We have been in contact with members of Congress over the past couple of days and the president has made it clear that this is important to him," White House spokesman Tony Snow said before the vote.

But GOP conservatives led the opposition. They repeatedly said the government must secure the borders before allowing millions of illegal aliens a path to legal status.

"Americans feel that they are losing their country ... to a government that has seemed to not have the competence or the ability to carry out the things that it says it will do," Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said in the debate's final hour.

Sen. Elizabeth H. Dole, R-N.C., said many Americans "don't have confidence" that borders, especially with Mexico, will be significantly tightened. "It's not just promises but proof that the American people want," Dole said.

But the bill's backers said border security and accommodations to illegal immigrants must go hand in hand.

"Year after year, we've had the broken borders," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. "Year after year, we've seen the exploitation of workers. Year after year, we've seen the people who live in fear within our own borders. This is the opportunity to change it. Now is the time."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told colleagues that if the bill faltered, the political climate almost surely would not allow a serious reconsideration until 2009 or later. It would be highly unlikely, she said, "in the next few years to fix the existing system... We are so close."

[LTCJ]

I believe the real purpose behind the written-in-secret "immigration reform" monstrosity bill was to CIRCUMVENT enforcement of existing laws

Exactly. I have coined the phrase "GOVERNMENT MALFEASANCE RELIEF ACT" to label this monstrosity because it was more truthful in describing its real intent.

[NormsRevenge]

He sure does..

.

These images provided by ABC shows Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., on ABC's 'This Week', Sunday, June 24, 2007, in Washington. Sessions, a leading critic of the immigration reform bill in the U.S. Senate, said that support for the bill continues to plummet, both among senators thought to be behind it and among the public. 'We are going to use every effort to slow this process down and continue to hold up the bill,' Sessions said. (AP Photo/ABC, Lauren Victoria Burke)

[GeorgefromGeorgia]

Bond voted NAY
Alphabetical by Senator Name Akaka (D-HI), Yea
Alexander (R-TN), Nay
Allard (R-CO), Nay
Barrasso (R-WY), Nay
Baucus (D-MT), Nay
Bayh (D-IN), Nay
Bennett (R-UT), Yea
Biden (D-DE), Yea
Bingaman (D-NM), Nay
Bond (R-MO), Nay
Boxer (D-CA), Yea
Brown (D-OH), Nay
Brownback (R-KS), Nay
Bunning (R-KY), Nay
Burr (R-NC), Nay
Byrd (D-WV), Nay
Cantwell (D-WA), Yea
Cardin (D-MD), Yea
Carper (D-DE), Yea
Casey (D-PA), Yea
Chambliss (R-GA), Nay
Clinton (D-NY), Yea
Coburn (R-OK), Nay
Cochran (R-MS), Nay
Coleman (R-MN), Nay
Collins (R-ME), Nay
Conrad (D-ND), Yea
Corker (R-TN), Nay
Cornyn (R-TX), Nay
Craig (R-ID), Yea
Crapo (R-ID), Nay
DeMint (R-SC), Nay
Dodd (D-CT), Yea
Dole (R-NC), Nay
Domenici (R-NM), Nay
Dorgan (D-ND), Nay
Durbin (D-IL), Yea
Ensign (R-NV), Nay
Enzi (R-WY), Nay
Feingold (D-WI), Yea
Feinstein (D-CA), Yea
Graham (R-SC), Yea
Grassley (R-IA), Nay
Gregg (R-NH), Yea
Hagel (R-NE), Yea
Harkin (D-IA), Nay
Hatch (R-UT), Nay
Hutchison (R-TX), Nay
Inhofe (R-OK), Nay
Inouye (D-HI), Yea
Isakson (R-GA), Nay
Johnson (D-SD), Not Voting
Kennedy (D-MA), Yea
Kerry (D-MA), Yea
Klobuchar (D-MN), Yea
Kohl (D-WI), Yea
Kyl (R-AZ), Yea
Landrieu (D-LA), Nay
Lautenberg (D-NJ), Yea
Leahy (D-VT), Yea
Levin (D-MI), Yea
Lieberman (ID-CT), Yea
Lincoln (D-AR), Yea
Lott (R-MS), Yea
Lugar (R-IN), Yea
Martinez (R-FL), Yea
McCain (R-AZ), Yea
McCaskill (D-MO), Nay
McConnell (R-KY), Nay
Menendez (D-NJ), Yea
Mikulski (D-MD), Yea
Murkowski (R-AK), Nay
Murray (D-WA), Yea
Nelson (D-FL), Yea
Nelson (D-NE), Nay
Obama (D-IL), Yea
Pryor (D-AR), Nay
Reed (D-RI), Yea
Reid (D-NV), Yea
Roberts (R-KS), Nay
Rockefeller (D-WV), Nay
Salazar (D-CO), Yea
Sanders (I-VT), Nay
Schumer (D-NY), Yea
Sessions (R-AL), Nay
Shelby (R-AL), Nay
Smith (R-OR), Nay
Snowe (R-ME), Yea
Specter (R-PA), Yea
Stabenow (D-MI), Nay
Stevens (R-AK), Nay
Sununu (R-NH), Nay
Tester (D-MT), Nay
Thune (R-SD), Nay
Vitter (R-LA), Nay
Voinovich (R-OH), Nay
Warner (R-VA), Nay
Webb (D-VA), Nay
Whitehouse (D-RI), Yea

[NormsRevenge]

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, left, and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, right, listen to President Bush speak on comprehensive immigration reform in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House compound in Washington, Tuesday, June 26, 2007. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

[Quix]

Hmmmmmmm

I wonder . . . .

how much of a market there would be —an idea here for anyone wanting to run with it— LOL. . .

how much of a market would there be for little water pistols using water from Chappaquidick . . . with disappearing red dye in it . . .

We could mail them to constituents in certain States to fire at RHINOS and DIMRAT TRAITORS.

Ahhhh . . . well . . . would love some way to embarrass the traitorous jerks as they went in to their offices to WEEE ON THE PEOPLE some more.

[wastedyears]

I have no idea. But it’s for certain I’m not going to vote for them.

[AfterManyASummer]

It was also about cheapening the cost of labor, which is probably why Bush supported it.

[California Patriot]

“Wonder where the Dead Kennedys are playing this week.”

Heh — good one!!!

[California Patriot]

A wonderful victory, FReepers!!! Our voices were heard!!!

Congrats to all who particulated in this struggle.

And let’s thank Sessions, DeMint, and Vitter while we’re at it!!!

[Cicero]

Does this mean that Ted Kennedy will quit singing in Spanish? ;-)

Probably not. He's been the dark force behind amnesty for a VERY long time. Who knows where we'll be when he gets his next chance ten or twenty years from now, if he doesn't keel over in the meantime?

[george76]

Excellent !

[kenth]

You’re correct about the situation, but Kyl and Lott flat out voted yes.

[madison10]

I assume you heard the pompous pontificator asking what we were going to do about the 12 million, as if that is all there are and only “they” have the answer.

I heard. That's HIS problem he let them in here, but amnesty is not the answer. Kennedy has been in Congress long enough to have found a good way to deal with the migration of illegals across our southern border. A fence should have been up long ago, the border patrol beefed up and NOT used as targets by said illegals.

Just askin':Is there proof that Kennedy's grandparents became citizens? I wanna see it.

[george76]

[fortheDeclaration]

Thanks for that photo-those guys aren’t laughing now-are they!

[potlatch]

Nice contrast huh? Lol.

[Grampa Dave]

Great job! Nothing like seeing Kennedy sober and drunk enough at the same time to feel the pain of defeat.

[Lazamataz]

Dear President Bush,

Bite me.

Love,
Laz

[beaversmom]

You just need a picture of rage boy in there.

[beaversmom]

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told colleagues that if the bill faltered, the political climate almost surely would not allow a serious reconsideration until 2009 or later. It would be highly unlikely, she said, "in the next few years to fix the existing system... We are so close."

You could fix it now you "B". You just don't want to do what needs to be done.