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Senators troll for immigration votes
2007-06-16
Architects of a revived immigration compromise are directing an intense behind-the-scenes bargaining effort to round up enough votes among wavering Republicans to keep it alive. Senate leaders' announcement Thursday that they would allow the bill a second chance came after getting assurances from key negotiators that they could produce enough support to steer the measure through a procedural minefield, including attempts by conservatives to block it. The fragile compromise would grant millions of illegal immigrants lawful status while tightening border security and creating new measures for weeding out illegal workers at job sites. Championed by President Bush, it has sparked an outcry among conservatives who regard it as amnesty for lawbreakers. An appearance by Bush on Capitol Hill this week to prod action on the measure -- and his subsequent OK to immediately pumping a new $4.4 billion into border security -- helped set the stage for its resurrection. But it was raw trolling for votes by key Republicans and Democrats that made the difference, said lawmakers and senior officials involved in the talks. The coalition drew up a tentative list of 22 amendments -- divided equally between the two parties -- whose consideration would give a handful of Republicans the comfort they needed to allow the bill to go forward. That would take 60 votes -- a threshold the bill missed by 15 last week, when just seven Republicans backed ending debate and moving to complete the bill. Allowing votes on the proposals "has as its goal bringing more people on board," Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a lead Republican negotiator, said in an interview Friday. "They're going to get input that will make them feel better," Graham said of wavering Republicans. "I do believe that with this new process, there will be enough votes to get to final passage, but the pressure's immense," Graham said. "I'll be going senator to senator" next week to persuade Republicans to back it. Bush plans to keep blocks of time open next week in order to be able to jump in as needed with pointed remarks and calls or meetings with lawmakers, aides said. "Each day our nation fails to act the problem only grows worse," the president said Friday at the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast. "I will continue to work closely with members of both parties to get past our differences and pass a bill I can sign this year." The package is not yet final, and key players probably will be hammering it out even as it unfolds on the Senate floor -- as has been typical of the delicate immigration deal, the product of virtually constant negotiation and renegotiation this spring. For some GOP holdouts, the promise of votes to make the bill more punitive toward the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants who would get lawful status might be enough to persuade them to support moving ahead. Negotiators hope that's the case for Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, who wants to toughen a requirement that unlawful immigrants seeking green cards return home to apply for permanent legal residency. Under the emerging framework, Hutchison would get a vote on her proposal -- co-sponsored by Tennessee Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, two other Republicans regarded as potentially persuadable -- to require all illegal immigrants to go home within two years in order to receive a Z visa to live and work lawfully in the U.S. The plan also is expected to allow a vote on an amendment by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., that would bar illegal immigrants from gaining lawful status until border security and workplace enforcement measures were accomplished. As written, the bill would allow those immigrants to gain probationary legal status to live and work in the U.S. until the so-called triggers were in place. Proponents of the bill are hoping others will like the prospect of the binding commitment of new money for strict border security and workplace enforcement measures. That proposal is geared toward satisfying the concerns of Georgia Republican Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, who have called on the Bush administration to request separate emergency funding for those purposes before any action on a broader immigration bill. Key Republicans also believe they can secure the backing of some centrists who supported an immigration overhaul last year, including Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn. To better their chances of persuading him, they are expected to allow Coleman a second vote on his proposal -- narrowly defeated last month -- to allow law enforcement officials to question people about their immigration status. Seemingly resigned to the bill's passage, Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., now says he plans to block a conference that would be needed to reconcile House and Senate versions before an immigration bill could be signed into law, his office said on Friday. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., "has sold us another bill of goods and I don't trust him to make even more changes to it behind closed doors in a conference with the House," DeMint said through a spokesman. Democrats, too, were looking for ways to appease skeptics within their ranks. Among the proposals that would see a vote under the still-incomplete plan, according to aides and lobbyists familiar with it, is one that would increase the number of green cards available for family members of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal is not final. Another proposal expected to be considered would remove a measure known as REAL ID, which requires states to verify that people who apply for a driver's license are in the country legally.
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