For immigration reform to get back on track on Capitol Hill, President Bush needs to convince skeptics on both sides of the aisle that the government can be trusted to enforce the law.

The Senate's "grand bargain" on immigration fell 15 votes short in a key procedural vote Thursday night, and majority leader Harry Reid pulled the bill off the floor.

To bring it back, Senate Republicans must reduce the number of amendments they are proposing. That can be done, said Republican leaders last week. If they do, "we'll find time to get this bill out," Senator Reid said after the vote.

But behind these procedural roadblocks is a deep settled conviction by opponents both on Capitol Hill and among the general public that the federal government lacks the will to enforce America's immigration laws.

"The public has a right to ask this these questions – and to be cynical – and we have to overcome that with this legislation," says Sen. Jon Kyl (R) of Arizona, the lead Republican sponsor of the "grand bargain" on immigration reform.

The last major immigration law, in 1986, gave amnesty to illegal immigrants – and promised border enforcement and sanctions on employers who hire undocumented workers, but did not deliver. The proposed new immigration law includes measures such as an electronic employee verification system to ensure that workers are legal. "That's been lost in the press coverage and the debate on the bill," Senator Kyl says.

In a radio address responding to last week's vote, Mr. Bush acknowledged that the 1986 immigration law failed, but said that the current bill can be improved.

"I know some of you doubt that the federal government will make good on the border security and enforcement commitments in this bill," he said. "My administration is determined to learn from the mistakes of the past decades."

Unlike the 1986 law, the current bill includes a temporary worker program "to ensure that those who come here to work do so in a legal and orderly way," he said. It will give "honest employers the tools they need to ensure that they are hiring legal workers," including a tamper-resistant identity card.

"Businesses that knowingly hire illegal aliens will be punished. Workers who come here illegally will be sent home," he said. Bush will be meeting in a closed session with Senate Republicans at their caucus luncheon on Tuesday.

But opponents say that two weeks of debate and roll call votes over amendments to this bill signal deep rifts over how far Washington should go to enforce the law.

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