Senate keeps guest-worker program

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.

It was the third key vote so far on the guest-worker program, which has been the major battleground for the bill this week.

Opponents managed on Wednesday to cut the number of new workers per year to 200,000, but the bill’s supporters have kept the program intact, including in yesterday’s 49-48 vote. In that vote, 38 Republicans, 10 Democrats and one independent voted against the sunset and 38 Democrats, nine Republicans and one independent voted to end the program after five years.

The two votes yesterday, stacked side by side, show that the threat to the Senate compromise comes far more from successful amendments from the left than from the right. More potential roadblocks include upcoming votes on Democrat-sponsored amendments that expand the definition of families eligible for reunification and try to eliminate some of the steps that illegal aliens must take before gaining a green card.

Still, yesterday’s legalization vote is likely to have the most immediate political impact among Republicans, who are deeply divided over legalizing illegal aliens.

It also marked a reversal for a number of Republicans who had previously opposed a path to citizenship, such as Sen. John Cornyn of Texas. Joining him was fellow Texas Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who hours earlier had told reporters that she thought it was amnesty if the aliens could gain legal status without leaving the country.

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