A fragile compromise that would legalize millions of unlawful immigrants risks coming unraveled after the Senate voted early Thursday to place a five-year limit on a program meant to provide U.S. employers with 200,000 temporary foreign workers annually. The 49-48 vote came two weeks after the Senate, also by a one-vote margin, rejected the same amendment by Sen. Byron Dorgan. The North Dakota Democrat says immigrants take many jobs Americans could fill.
The reversal dismayed backers of the immigration bill, which is supported by President Bush but loathed by many
A five-year sunset, they said, could knock the legs from the precarious bipartisan coalition aligned with the White House. The Dorgan amendment "is a tremendous problem, but it's correctable," said Sen. Arlen Specter, Rino-Pa. The coalition will try as early as Thursday to persuade at least one senator to help reverse the outcome yet again, he said.
| This bill died when the Senate refused the Corbin amendment that would prevent aliens with felony convictions in the U.S. from getting a provisional Z visa. Failure to get that into the bill just about guarantees a successful Republican filibuster. |