Kennedy Plea Was Last Gasp for Immigration Bill - New York Times

Kennedy Plea Was Last Gasp for Immigration Bill - New York Times: "Kennedy Plea Was Last Gasp for Immigration Bill " WASHINGTON, June 8 — It was the moment of truth for legislation that would make the most profound changes in immigration policy in more than 20 years. Desperate to salvage a measure in which he and others had invested months, Senator Edward M. Kennedy headed to the secluded Capitol suite of Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, to make one last personal plea. Mr. Kennedy, an immigration advocate since his first days in the Senate nearly 45 years ago, hoped to persuade Mr. Reid to delay a procedural vote that could kill the measure. As the two met shortly after 7 p.m. on Thursday in the well-appointed office that overlooks the Mall, Mr. Reid told Mr. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, that Republicans would just endlessly stall the bill and that it was time to move on. Mr. Reid had already granted enough extensions. Just minutes before that meeting, Senate Republicans in the middle of the immigration fight had ended an hours-long huddle at which they argued over what demands they would make in exchange for agreeing to cap the debate time. But they could not see eye to eye among themselves and ultimately filed empty-handed out of the office of Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader. Within two hours, the centerpiece of President Bush’s remaining domestic agenda and what many people saw as the best chance to get a handle on the worsening immigration problem, was yanked from the floor. Two weeks of debate had failed to stem attacks from critics on the right and left; 38 Republicans, 11 Democrats and 1 independent rejected Mr. Reid’s call to limit debate and head toward a resolution. This account is based on interviews with senators, administration officials and others who spent much of the week in the Capitol as the Senate debated the bill. “People on opposite sides of the political spectrum, in effect, banded together to defeat the middle,” said James G. Gimpel, a professor at the University of Maryland who has written a book on the politics of immigration. “Restrictionists on the right were always against the bill because they opposed any legalization for illegal immigrants. “Business groups and their allies, including advocates for immigrant rights, lost much of their ardor for the bill because of changes made in the legislative process.” That vote might have been the telling blow for the measure. Lawmakers, officials and activists engaged in creating and — at least for the moment — unraveling the bill say it was undone for complex and interrelated reasons. The leaderships of both parties kept their distance from the start. Mr. Reid, Democrat of Nevada, was ambivalent about the policy and political merits of the approach. Mr. McConnell, his counterpart, found himself caught among diehard Republican opponents, lawmakers open to persuasion and a president eager for a victory. President Bush found himself at odds with many in his own party. And there was little appetite in the House for the bills among Democrats or Republicans, hence adding little pressure on the Senate to produce. The creation of the bill, too, was highly unorthodox. Even participants in the private negotiations that led to the so-called grand bargain say their very approach created problems, producing contentious legislation embraced by the participants but met with skepticism by other lawmakers, the public and groups like organized labor and conservative research organizations. “The chance to create meaningful immigration reform legislation was lost the moment the bill emerged from its closed-door meeting with an immediate path to amnesty for anywhere from 12 million to 20 million illegal immigrants,” Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, said in hailing the defeat of the bill. “This agreement was reached between a handful of senators,” said Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, one of the Democrats who balked and voted against limiting debate. “That should not be considered a substitute for deliberation by the full Senate.” As lawmakers began to contend with the collapse of the bill, the effort to distribute blame picked up where the debate left off. The office of Mr. Reid, who had emphatically sought to hold Republicans accountable for sabotaging a presidential priority, distributed a document titled “Republicans Brought Down the Immigration Bill.” It listed news reports and Republican statements that put the onus on the president’s party. “Last night, Republicans torpedoed comprehensive immigration reform,” the statement said. Republicans fired back, saying Mr. Reid never embraced the bill and had, rather skillfully in some people’s opinion, set up Republicans to take the fall. Republican officials insisted that they could have reached an accord within days on a limited number of about 12 amendments if Mr. Reid had given them more time. They said the argument that the Senate had more pressing business was refuted by the fact that the chamber was not in session on Friday and was scheduled to vote on Monday on a nonbinding resolution of no confidence in Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales. “Harry Reid was not willing to let this thing run its course,” said Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas. Members of the bipartisan coalition that wrote the measure promised that they would continue to press their case and would urge Mr. Reid to return to the debate at some point, perhaps as quickly as next week. “When it is recognized by the American people that the Senate has not acted, I believe there’s going to be a wave of support for what we’ve been trying to do,” said Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, another author of the plan. President Bush, who will meet Republican senators at the Capitol for their weekly Tuesday luncheon in an appearance scheduled before the bill stalled, used his radio address to “urge Senator Reid to act quickly to bring this bill back to the Senate floor for a vote, and I urge Senators from both parties to support it.” He called Senate Republican leaders on Friday from Air Force One while traveling in Europe to discuss the bill. 1 2 Next Page » More Articles in Washington »