Capitol Hill closes in on immigration reform

Proposed bills would create a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship for illegal migrants.

from the March 13, 2007 edition

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But in recent days, even key players like Senator McCain have expressed concerns that negotiations have been protracted and difficult. In recent weeks, McCain has taken a hammering on the primary trail for his support of the war in Iraq and last year's McCain-Kennedy bill, which is opposed by GOP conservatives.

In South Carolina this weekend, McCain told a rally that the US needed a temporary work program to help secure the borders but that workers would need to go back home.

Questioned on whether relations with his cosponsor were in trouble, Kennedy said last week: "We have made real progress, and if there is any difficulty, we can go back to the bill we all passed last year."

But lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say that reformers face an uphill climb to match last year's Senate vote, which passed by a vote of 62 to 36.

Several of the freshmen who helped Democrats take back the Senate campaigned against amnesty for illegal workers.

Sen. Jon Tester (D) of Montana says that he is waiting to see the new legislation but that he would have voted against the 2006 Senate bill. "I don't think the country has wanted to solve the problem, and I don't think it wants to now," he said in an interview last week. "Government needs to secure the borders first and then work on enforcing the laws that we have."

"We'll need a significant number of Republican votes, and we're going to need the president," says Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate majority leader Harry Reid.

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