Immigration bill set for key vote today

WASHINGTON -- The Senate yesterday killed proposals from the left and the right for major changes in a comprehensive immigration bill, but the outlook for the bill remained in doubt as senators prepared for a crucial vote on whether to end debate and move to final passage.

Democrats failed in efforts to promote family unification by providing more visas to parents of US citizens. Republicans lost in their bid to toughen the requirements for illegal immigrants who want to become permanent residents and ultimately citizens. Those results preserved the fragile bipartisan compromise embodied in the bill, President Bush's top domestic priority, which would make the biggest changes in immigration law in more than 20 years.

The debate became unusually testy and senators tied themselves in procedural knots as they tried to work through a package of 27 amendments. Some stonewalled normally routine requests by their colleagues -- raising objections, for example, when senators asked to dispense with further proceedings under a quorum call or to explain their reasons for objecting to a request for unanimous consent.

"We are in trench warfare," said Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, a strong supporter of the bill.

A leading opponent of the measure, Senator David Vitter, Republican of Louisiana, said, "I am being railroaded."

The conflict was leading to a climactic vote, scheduled for this morning, on whether to end debate on the legislation. If the majority gets the 60 votes needed to close debate, a final vote on the bill would be scheduled. But senators of both parties said they were unsure whether the bill would clear that hurdle. Several senators who voted to keep the bill alive on Tuesday said they would probably oppose efforts to shut off debate.

The bill would provide $4.4 billion for border security, increase the penalties for hiring illegal immigrants, create a new guest worker program, and offer legal status to millions of illegal immigrants.

By a vote of 53-to-45, the Senate killed a Republican proposal that would have required most adult illegal immigrants to leave the United States and return to their home countries to apply for legal status, in the form of special "Z visas," which would allow them to work in the United States.

The vote does not mean that the "touchback requirement" is dead. The overall bill includes such a requirement for people who want permanent residence visas, known as green cards.

The bill would establish a point system to evaluate potential immigrants, giving more weight to job skills and education and less to family ties. The Senate yesterday rejected two proposals to promote the reunification of families.

One of the amendments, offered by Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, would have awarded 10 extra points, on a 100-point scale, to adult children and siblings of US citizens and legal permanent residents. The other, by Senator Chris Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, would have set aside more green cards for parents of US citizens.

By a vote of 56 to 41, the Senate killed an amendment by Senator Christopher S. Bond, Republican of Missouri, to prohibit illegal immigrants from obtaining green cards.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the chief Democratic architect of the bill, said that illegal immigrants would be easily exploited if they could never become lawful permanent residents.

"We can imagine the resentment, the hostility that will seethe and grow," Kennedy said.