Senate keeps guest-worker program

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The Senate yesterday approved a path to citizenship for illegal aliens, beating back an attempt to remove it from the "grand bargain" immigration bill.

"This is amnesty, pure and simple," said Sen. Jim DeMint, the South Carolina Republican who tried to strip out the legalization provisions, saying it would repeat the mistake of the 1986 amnesty.

But his amendment failed 66-29. Twenty-five Republicans voted for a path to citizenship for illegals, while 20 voted against it, and 41 Democrats voted for legalization while nine voted against it. The chamber's two Democrat-leaning independents also voted for legalization.

If the amendment had passed, it would have cut out the heart of the grand bargain, reached last week by a handful of Democrats and Republicans and the White House. Under that deal, the Republicans agreed to legalize illegal aliens in exchange for Democrats' allowing a new guest-worker program and changes that favor future immigrants with needed skills and education.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, said this new path to citizenship isn't amnesty because it requires illegals to wait, pay fines and demonstrate a work history.

"Legalization is important for our national security. We have to know who is in the United States of America. Legalization is important in terms of our economic prosperity," he said.

Hours earlier, the bipartisan group defending the immigration deal escaped a closer call, defeating a Democratic amendment to end the guest-worker program after five years.

They avoided that only after Mr. Kennedy talked Sen. Daniel K. Akaka, Hawaii Democrat, into switching his vote, and the amendment failed 49-48.

Afterward, the bill's backers were convinced that they have a clear path to passing the bill in two weeks, when the Senate returns from a weeklong Memorial Day vacation.

"We see essentially no enormous roadblocks or no poison pills or no killer amendments ahead that we can't deal with," said Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Republican.