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Senate passes immigration bill
Tough negotiations with House expected, with GOP divided
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Senate approved an immigration bill Thursday that would toughen security at the Mexican border and grant many illegal immigrants a path toward citizenship.
The 62-36 vote set the stage for another battle as lawmakers will try to mesh it with a stricter bill passed by the House in December.
Most members of the GOP majority in the Senate voted against the measure, with 23 backing it and 32 opposing. Among Democrats voting, 38 supported the bill and four did not. The chamber's independent Senator voted in favor.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican who voted for the bill, has called for swift talks with the House to mold a compromise measure.
The House bill passed in December focuses on border enforcement, and omits a guest-worker program and a legalization process for illegal immigrants.
President Bush supports increased border enforcement and a guest-worker program with a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
In the closing moments of Senate floor debate Wednesday, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania looked ahead to the conference committee meetings and reminded fellow Republicans that midterm elections are looming.
"We have the House and the Senate controlled by the Republican Party, and there is an important issue, political issue, about the ability of Republicans to govern," the Judiciary Committee chairman said. "There is an election in November, and our leadership positions as Republicans is on the line. And I think that will weigh heavily in the conference."
He added, "We look forward to the president's more intense participation" on the immigration issue.
The Senate voted Wednesday to cut off debate on its measure -- a compromise originally drafted by Republican Sens. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Mel Martinez of Florida -- setting the stage for Thursday's balloting.
"The most contentious part" of the bill is how to handle the status of the millions of illegal immigrants already in the United States, Frist said.
Under the Senate bill, he said, those who have been in the country two to five years would enter a temporary-worker program, while those here longer would be eligible for legal status or citizenship after an 11-year probationary period.
Under the Senate legislation, illegal immigrants in the United States less than two years would be returned to their home countries.
Sen. John McCain said, "I think it's really the only viable solution that you can arrive at, given that there's 11 million or 12 million people who are already here illegally.
"You can't send them back. The status quo is not acceptable, so you have to find a way to, I think, not forgive them and not say, 'Look, you can just be citizens,' but give them a very tough path to citizenship," the Arizona Republican said on ABC's "Good Morning America." (Watch McCain explain why he's proud of the immigration bill -- 4:55)
The temporary-worker program, supported by Bush, has been dismissed by many conservatives as "amnesty" for illegal immigrants.
Frist acknowledged room for improvement in the legislation, and said it might come during the conference committee meetings.
Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican, said that reconciling the Senate bill with the House version will require tough negotiation and compromise.
"I think one of the requirements is that it has to be a comprehensive approach, that you've got to deal with the 11 million that are here illegally, you have to deal with the future flow, and you have to secure the border," Brownback told Fox News on Thursday.
"If we do one, the rest of it isn't going to work, and you're going to be back in the same soup in a few years," he said.
'Difficulty' in reconciliation
McCain said he was optimistic the plans can be reconciled.
"We're not drawing any lines in the sand. And I think that already we are hearing at least some proposals from the House side that deserve consideration and certainly show some movement on their part," he said on ABC.
House Majority Leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, noted the gulf between the two versions of the bill.
"We have two very separate and distinct directions that we're going [in] when it comes to controlling our borders, enforcing our laws, where the House was, where the Senate has provisions that go far beyond that. And I don't underestimate the difficulty in the House and Senate trying to come together in an agreement," Boehner said at a news conference Thursday.
"But I'm hopeful that we will come to a resolution and pass a bill."
Boehner stressed the importance of the border issue to the House.
"You can't control the problem without first strengthening the borders and beginning to enforce the laws," he said.
Frist had once supported the House version of the bill, which would make illegal immigration a felony.
But the likely 2008 Republican presidential candidate said he has changed his position because "a mature understanding" of the handling of illegal immigrants has emerged in the Senate after two weeks of debate.
"Many have been assimilated into our society; 40 percent have been here longer than 10 years, have had kids go to high school and college and now have jobs," Frist said. "And therefore, we put together a compromise."
He held out hope that lawmakers in the House would also be willing to compromise.
"People ask me all the time, 'How're you going to put these two together?' I think we will be able to."
As the discussion continued in the U.S. capital, Mexican President Vicente Fox, on whose border the Senate bill also mandates 370 miles of new fencing, was on a swing through three Western states.
"Mexico believes that it will take more than just enforcement, building walls, to really solve the challenge posed by the migration phenomenon," Fox said Wednesday in Seattle, Washington, according to The Associated Press.
Copyright 2006 CNN.
