WASHINGTON (ABP) — Just one day after a purported “breakthrough” on immigration reform in the Senate, a partisan dispute erupted in the Senate April 7, effectively setting back a compromise bill for weeks.
Legislation hailed as a consensus bill and brought forth by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), and Minority Leader Harry Reid, (D-Nev.), failed by nearly the same margin that a Democratic-led bill did a day before. It went down on a procedural vote, with a majority of the chamber refusing to cut off debate on the bill.
Most Democrats were reportedly resisting attempts by opponents of easier paths to citizenship for undocumented immigrants to amend the compromise bill.
The vote puts any Senate action regarding immigration reform at least two weeks back. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, (R-Penn.), reportedly said his panel would again commence work on the issue when it returned from an Easter break, but Frist would not commit to placing the issue back in front of the Senate because of a crowded legislative schedule.
Republicans and Democrats quickly blamed each other for turning immigration into a partisan issue.
During a Catholic prayer breakfast the same morning, President Bush again called for immigration reform.
“An immigration system that forces people into the shadows of our society, or leaves them prey to criminals, is a system that needs to be changed,” he said. “I'm confident that we can change — change our immigration system in ways that secures our border, respects the rule of law, and, as importantly, upholds the decency of our country. As the Congress continues this debate, its members must remember we are a nation of immigrants. And immigration has helped restore our soul on a regular basis.”
Suzii Paynter, interim director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas' Christian Life Commission, said the vote is the reason a commission should be formed to create larger consensus on immigration. That group should include leaders from the House of Representatives and Senate, as well as other stakeholders.
“This is an indication that we need something like a presidential immigration commission,” she said.
Earlier in the week, Paynter's organization joined more than 50 other evangelical groups to call for “comprehensive immigration reform.” Paynter said reform needs to be a balance of “security and solutions”, protecting America's borders as well as creating avenues for undocumented residents to become citizens.
The defeated Senate bill divided undocumented workers into three groups and outlined a plan for each group to attain citizenship.
The House has passed a bill that relied almost exclusively on harsher enforcement of current immigration laws but did not deal with making any undocumented residents citizens. Thousands of immigrants as well as hundreds of religious leaders and groups have opposed that bill, including many evangelical groups.
The House bill, passed late last year, is H.R. 4437, the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005. The bill the Senate stalled was S. 2454, the Securing America's Borders Act of 2006.
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