Washington – The Senate voted Monday to open debate but delay a vote on legislation that would allow an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants to stay in the country legally.
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said senators needed more time to digest and reshape the complicated bill, which Sen. Ken Sala zar, D-Colo., helped craft. Reid put off a vote for at least three weeks.
“The country deserves it. … The Senate deserves it,” Reid said. “This is a tremendously important piece of legislation.”
A federal law is needed, Salazar said Monday, because states considered 1,169 immigration initiatives from January through April 13 of this year. Colorado last year passed a law requiring people to prove residency before collecting taxpayer-funded benefits. There are an estimated 225,000 to 275,000 illegal immigrants in the state.
“To me that’s a clarion call for action on the part of the U.S. Congress,” Salazar said of the number of state initiatives.
The Senate will debate the compromise bill this week, take a week break from Washington after Memorial Day, then return for another week of debate with a vote after that.
Senators voted 69-23 on the procedural vote that allows debate on the immigration measure to begin. Several senators said they opposed the bill as written but voted to open debate.
Salazar voted for the measure and Wayne Allard, R-Colo., voted against, saying that he opposed the immigration reform bill last year.
Reid, McConnell and an aide to Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, chief Democratic architect of the bill, indicated Monday that the compromise legislation isn’t likely to stay in its current form. Dozens of amendments will be offered.
Salazar and the group of about eight senators who pulled together the compromise package dubbed it “the grand bargain.”
Salazar will now be meeting with that group at least once a day, reviewing those amendments and developing an action plan to pass or block amendments. The group has agreed to vote as a bloc “on anything that interrupts the grand bargain,” the Kennedy aide said. Each member will then work to persuade other senators.
Salazar said that in talking to colleagues he is pushing the need for the immigration reform package as a national-security issue.
Salazar and the others, including Kennedy, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Republican Sens. Mel Martinez of Florida, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Jon Kyl of Arizona, appear to have a lot of work in front of them.
Those familiar with amendments already offered and in the works said that Democrats will try to change a guest-worker program provision in the bill so that temporary workers can apply for residency. Under the compromise bill as written, they cannot.
Democrats also want to reshape parts of the bill that would make immigration much harder in the future for extended family members of citizens and legal U.S. residents.
Republicans, perhaps joined by a few moderate Democrats, will work to modify a provision that would allow illegal immigrants to come forward and apply for a special “Z” visa. After an eight-year probation, they could then pay fines and fees and apply to stay legally. They could apply for citizenship after that.
Some Republicans want it eliminated entirely, calling it amnesty. Others suggested it should be modified so that illegal immigrants in the country a short time aren’t treated the same as those here many years.
Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska opposed wrapping the Z-visa provisions into a larger bill, saying Congress should first pass provisions to fortify the border. Then it can consider other reforms, he said.
