Senate Votes - S. 1348: Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (Unfinished)

White House direction:

May 12 Radio Address: Five Pillars of Comprehensive Immigration Reform

1. continue our efforts to improve security at our borders
2. hold employers to account for the workers they hire
3. create a temporary worker program
4. resolve the status of millions of illegal immigrants
5. honor the great American tradition of the melting pot

May 19 Radio Address: The Agreement Explained

White House Counselor Challenges Democrats on Immigration Bill


S. 1348: Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007

A Last Gasp For Immigration Reform?

Discord on the Immigration Accord
Groups on Both Sides Plan to Challenge Senate Compromise

Bruising Battle Looms for Senate’s Immigration Bill
As the Senate prepared for a procedural vote at 5:30 p.m. that would launch its debate on a massive immigration overhaul, critics of the proposal continued to assail various elements of the bill.

Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Proceed
Passed 69-23

Immigration Compromise Faces New Opposition
Proposal Stays Alive, But Foes Lie in Wait

Debate

Amendments (GovTrack, Thomas)

Senators Seek 60-Vote Test for Contentious Immigration Amendments
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said today that a bipartisan effort is under way behind the scenes to keep an immigration overhaul moving through the Senate expeditiously. Reid said negotiators from both parties were working to produce a list of contentious amendments that give "heartburn" to one party or the other that could be addressed under a unanimous consent agreement requiring 60 votes for adoption.

Dorgan Amdt. No. 1153; To strike the Y nonimmigrant guestworker program.
Rejected 31-64

Proposal For Guest Workers Survives
A fragile Senate coalition backing an embattled overhaul of the nation's immigration laws survived its first legislative test yesterday, beating back an effort to strip a guest-worker program from the immigration bill.

Bingaman Amdt. No. 1169; To reduce to 200,000 the number of certain non-immigrants permitted to be admitted during a fiscal year.
Agreed to 74-24

Senate Scales Down Proposed Guest-Worker Program
The Senate slashed the size of a proposed guest-worker program for foreign laborers yesterday, dealing the first real blow to a fragile overhaul of the nation's immigration laws since it reached the Senate floor this week.

Akaka Amdt. No. 1186; To exempt children of certain Filipino World War II veterans from the numerical limitations on immigrant visas.
Agreed to 87-9

Coleman Amdt. No. 1158; To amend the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to facilitate information sharing between federal and local law enforcement officials related to an individual's immigration status.
Rejected 48-49

Dorgan Amdt. No. 1181; To sunset the Y-1 nonimmigrant visa program after a 5-year period.
Rejected 48-49

Sanders Amdt. No. 1223; To establish the American Competitiveness Scholarship Program.
Agreed to 59-35

Vitter Amdt. No. 1157; To strike title VI (related to Nonimmigrants in the United States Previously in Unlawful Status).
Rejected 29-66


The Senate may resume consideration of this bill when it returns from its Memorial Day recess.


Rep. Deborah Pryce: Nations Have Borders for a Reason
Rarely does a day go by in the Congress where the term “Rule of Law” isn’t bandied about on the floor. While its overuse has made the term almost cliché, the Rule of Law effectively shields us from arbitrary governance and establishes civil order. It is the glue that keeps our social and political order intact because of its permanence and predictability. But under the Senate immigration package unveiled last week, the Rule of Law — as it applies to our nation’s sovereignty — would be significantly undermined.

Immigration tests Democrats' unity
The biggest threats to an immigration bill spearheaded by Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy have come from within: Twice this week, senators from his own Democratic Party were poised to back amendments that could have killed the fragile compromise.

Conservative Democrats: Immigration and Rising Income Inequality
Rising inequality in the United States is linked to rising immigration, falling union membership and rising international trade according to economists.

Sojourners: Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform
The current U.S. immigration system is broken and now is the time for a fair and compassionate solution. We think it is entirely possible to protect our borders while establishing a viable, humane, and realistic immigration system, one that is consistent with our American values and increases national security while protecting the livelihood of Americans. The biblical principles above call us to support comprehensive immigration reform legislation.

WSJ: Save Our Cities
Immigrants have rescued Americans from urban blight.


Legal Immigration

EPPC: Fixing Immigration
The national debate over immigration took center stage last week as a group of Senators proposed the most significant immigration reform bill in decades. EPPC Fellow Yuval Levin, writing in the latest Commentary magazine, observes: "The heated arguments have had to do almost entirely not with America's immigration system per se but with the estimated half-million people who enter the United States illegally each year." Levin argues that more attention must be paid to the nation's badly broken legal immigration system, and proposes some reforms to improve it.

Immigration Agency Mired In Inefficiency
Last June, U.S. immigration officials were presented a plan that supporters said could help slash waiting times for green cards from nearly three years to three months and save 1 million applicants more than a third of the 45 hours they could expect to spend in government lines. It would also save about $350 million. The response? No thanks.