Washington – The U.S. Senate voted 62-36 to rewrite the nation’s immigration laws Thursday, bolstering border security, creating a guest-worker program and providing a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants.
The changes are the most significant overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws in two decades. But they are not yet law, and are far from guaranteed to become so.
The Senate bill must be merged with legislation passed by the U.S. House in December that increased penalties for illegal immigration and emphasized sealing the U.S. border. The House measure did not offer legal status for undocumented workers.
“All the good work we’ve done here this week, it can be eliminated in a heartbeat when we go to conference with the House,” said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. We should know that dark clouds are forming on the horizon.”
Already lawmakers are talking about ripping up the House and Senate versions and starting from scratch in the conference committee formed to work out differences in the bills.
Others predict bills will be merged in a manner that keeps increased border-security provisions and requires illegal immigrants to leave the country before returning as guest workers.
Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., has been asked to join the conference committee that will try to unite the bills. He said the size of the Senate yes vote will put momentum behind the Senate version going into conference.
“Hopefully we’re be able to get the House to move in our direction and recognize that dealing with a criminalization and wall-only bill is the wrong way to go,” Salazar said.
Republicans supporting the Senate bill warned that failure to turn legislation into law could have devastating consequences.
“There is an important issue about the ability of Republicans to govern,” said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who noted there is an election in November. “Our leadership position as Republicans is on the line.”
Although the Senate bill was expected to pass, it needed a lopsided Democratic margin in a Republican-controlled Senate. Thirty-two Republicans voted against the bill while 23 voted for it. Democrats overwhelmingly supported the bill, with only four voting against.
Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., voted no. “This legislation penalizes the more than 3 million people currently standing in the citizenship line who are playing by the rules,” Allard said, “while granting amnesty to those who have not followed the rules.”
Salazar did not vote, leaving beforehand to speak at his daughter’s high school graduation Thursday night in Denver. Salazar would have voted yes, spokesman Drew Nannis said.
Salazar said the bill “represents a comprehensive solution to the immigration crisis facing our nation.”
Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Littleton, who heads the House faction opposed to granting legal status to illegal immigrants, said the Republican vote count puts the Senate in a weakened position heading into the conference committee. The House, he said, should refuse to pass a conference committee bill if a majority of Republicans don’t support it.
“Right now the Republican base expects the leadership of the House to stand firm,” Tancredo said. “If they don’t and allow a Democratic bill to become law, it certainly will take away any enthusiasm (voters) have to get out there in the next election and support the Republican Party.”
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert has said he will not bring a bill up for a vote that does not have support of a majority of House Republicans – 116 votes.
“We believe in a strong border security bill,” Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean said. “The speaker does not believe in amnesty nor in a path to citizenship” for those in the country illegally.
But Hastert is “open to looking at guest worker,” Bonjean said.
Timing of the conference committee isn’t yet known. Supporters of the Senate bill began pushing for it to happen quickly so it might be finished before Congress leaves for a month-long August recess.
Republican leaders may decide not to hold the meetings until after the November election, some predicted, in the window before January known as the lame-duck session.
That would allow House Republicans – all of whom are up for re-election – to go in to the election having voted only for the bill that ramps up border security and toughens enforcement.
Several observers put the odds that a bill will emerge from conference committee and be voted into law at about even.
“At this stage of the chess game, it’s natural for each (half of Congress) to say it’s not going to budge, said Charlie Black, Republican strategist and a liaison between the White House and Congress.
One reasons the coalition in the Senate has fought so hard to keep the essence of the Senate bill intact is that lawmakers know it will be pared back in the conference committee, he said.
“A majority of Republicans haven’t ruled out a guest worker program or dealing with the illegal workers who have been here all along,” Black said. “They just don’t want it to be as liberal as what some senators want.”
Democrats in both Houses would have to decide whether they’d vote against a conference-committee compromise if it did not put illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship, he said.
“Democrats might decide to kill it,” he said. If that happens, “they’re the ones who are going to take the blame for there being no progress on border security or the other things. ”
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid’s spokesman Jim Manley scoffed at that strategy.
“The Republicans control the House, the Senate and the White House,” Manley said. “The president’s pledged to pass comprehensive immigration reform. To do anything less … would be entirely the Republicans’ fault.”
Staff writer Manny Gonzales contributed to this report.
