News / Politics
Immigration Bill All but Dead After Senate Opens Debates
The President Bush backed immigration bill that would have paved the way for 12 million illegal immigrants to gain legal status suffered a deathblow on Thursday after backers of the bill could not rally enough support to reach the 60 votes needed to limit the debate of the legislation.
The failure to secure the necessary votes will likely put the issue on hold until after the 2008 elections, marking a major defeat in Bush’s plan to orchestrate a lasting solution for the matter.
While Bush had called the proposal that would have toughened border security and enforced new measures to handle illegal immigrants in the workplace an imperfect yet necessary fix of the current system many Republicans took exception to the amnesty plan for current illegal aliens living in the United States.
Falling 14 votes shy of the 60 needed most believe the immigration bill won’t be touched until after a new president is elected in 2008.
