US immigration deal on verge of collapse

US immigration deal on verge of collapse
By Alex Barker in Washington
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Published: June 8 2007 04:13 | Last updated: June 8 2007 18:11


A bipartisan compromise on immigration legislation crafted through months of painful negotiations in Congress looked to be on the verge of collapse on Friday after disgruntled members of both parties joined forces to block the bill.

The defeat of the move to overhaul the troubled immigration system, which was backed by President George W. Bush and both Democrat and Republican Congressional leaders, throws into doubt one of the administration’s top domestic priorities.

The setback also highlighted the immense problems the divided political culture in Washington poses to any legislation that attempts to tackle big domestic issues facing the country, such as social security, immigration, or healthcare. Polls show that the public broadly supported the proposed reforms.

Leading supporters of the legislation, which would have given America’s estimated 12m illegal immigrants a path to qualify for permanent status, vowed to keep on fighting to pass the measures. Ted Kennedy, Democratic senator, promised to come “roaring back” and grab “victory out of the jaws of defeat”.

However, as the two sides began blaming each other, analysts were sceptical that the proposal could be amended to win over its seemingly implacable opponents.

Harry Reid, Senate majority leader, has said he will try to reintroduce the bill. But after the vote he criticised Republicans for failing to deliver promised votes. “This is the president’s bill,” he said. “Where are the president’s people helping us with these votes?”

The passage of the bill through the Senate was blocked late on Thursday night by an unlikely alliance of liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans.

Critics of the bill on the right have derided its measures as offering “amnesty” to undocumented workers who had broken the law without effectively tackling the problem of security at the borders.

The proposal has deeply divided the Republican party and exposed leading supporters of the reforms – such as Mr Bush and John McCain, the presidential candidate and senator – to unusually harsh criticism from within their ranks.

Dissenting Democrats in the Senate were far fewer in number.

Their concerns were that the measures made it harder for divided families to get US green cards and that American jobs were being put at risk by introducing a new temporary worker programme.