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Immigration Redux: Homeland Security

July 25, 2007 6:39 PM

ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf reports: Senators spent months debating and wrangling on passage of a comprehensive immigration reform bill. All for naught when they failed to get 60 votes for the sweeping change.

Elements of the hard-fought, but failed compromise border security bill are poised to pass onto the Homeland Security Appropriations bill tonight without so much as a roll call vote.

The Senate has been busy all day debating the Homeland Security Appropriations bill, but they have been talking all day about the two issues they have been unable to agree on in recent months: immigration and Iraq.

Democrats have made floor speeches arguing that while the Bush administration is mired in Iraq, the homeland remains at risk.

Republicans, seeing their chance, have said "yep, lets make the homeland safer." So they have proposed adding the border security elements of the moth-balled comprehensive Immigration reform bill and adding those elements -- $3 billion worth of border security agents and fencing and other security elements -- and are trying to add them to the Homeland Security bill.

Democrats rejected a proposal that would have included some controversial mandatory minimum sentences for illegal border crossers, questioning of immigrants by police and other non-funding-related items.

They cannot, however, claim to be protecting the Homeland and disagree with the extra money for border security. So the border security aspects are set to pass later tonight by unanimous consent.

The bulk of the debate on this took place while two of the Senate's three office buildings were evacuated due to a small electrical fire.

Even some of the biggest Republican cheerleaders of comprehensive reform have jumped on to the new piecemeal approach. Notably, Republican Lindsey Graham from South Carolina is the sponsor fo the piecemeal border security amendment even though he was a sponsor of the comprehensive approach months ago.

This turn of events has frustrated other sponsors of the failed compromise, who had hoped to revitalize it in the future. Sens. Dianne Feinstein, R-Calif, and Larry Craig, R-Idaho, took to the floor to argue that if border security is being attached to the Homeland Security Bill, the temporary worker program for agricultural workers in the failed comprehensive approach should be included too. That will be a harder sell. Feinstein is engaged in a heated debate with Georgia Republican Saxby Chambliss on the Senate floor right now.

One aspect of the temporary worker program that has no chance of being attached to the Homeland Security bill is the so-called "pathway to citizenship" for undocumented immigrants currently in the country.

July 25, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (2)

User Comments

Posted by: marc | Jul 31, 2007 12:56:50 AM

Posted by: A.M.Shahabi | Aug 25, 2008 11:59:29 PM

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