Prospects for accord on immigrant reform seem slim

BY GLENN THRUSH AND TOM BRUNE
Newsday Washington Bureau

April 6, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Immigration reform teetered on the edge of collapse yesterday as senators engaged in a highly charged partisan debate on the Senate floor while meetings on salvaging the effort went on behind closed doors.

With a Monday deadline set by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist looming, prospects for comprehensive reforms being passed appeared to fade as aides on both sides said Republicans and Democrats now see political benefits in an impasse heading into fall elections.

Driving the debate is the maneuver by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to force a cloture vote today, requiring the Senate to decide whether to end debate and vote on the McCain-Kennedy bill.

With cloture, Democrats are forcing an up-or-down vote on the relatively lenient McCain-Kennedy bill overwhelmingly favored by their base, while Republicans get to accuse Democrats of partisan obstructionism for refusing to vote on their amendments first.

Democrats have just 44 votes and may not be able to round up the 60 needed to end debate, especially after Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), whose name is on the bill in question, said he would vote against cloture.

But McCain also held out hope for a breakthrough that would bridge divisions between senators proposing mainly stricter immigration enforcement and senators pushing to give illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.

Frist did not sound optimistic, blaming the Democrats.

"In all likelihood, unless we have a radical departure in the next hour," he said yesterday afternoon, "then we will leave here and have accomplished nothing."

Reid brushed off Frist's complaint, saying, "It's in the eyes of the beholder who is stonewalling."

Meetings continued among Senate staff into the evening, aides said. They began yesterday morning when Republican congressional leaders met at the White House with President George W. Bush, who urged the Senate "get a comprehensive bill."

Meanwhile, off the Senate floor, Hillary Rodham Clinton claimed yesterday that she and her staff might be arrested under a House Republican plan making it a felony to "assist" illegal immigrants -- a week after claiming "Jesus himself" might be locked up.

"I realize I would be a criminal, too. My staff would be criminal," said Clinton, speaking before U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Washington. "We help people with all kinds of problems."

Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), co-sponsor of the House bill, has said the felony provision will be removed if and when it needs to be reconciled with the Senate's bill.

"Sen. Clinton knows that we've never intended to go after priests and nuns, just alien smuggling gangs," he said. "Unless she's a smuggler she's got nothing to worry about. And Senator Clinton doesn't look like a coyote to me."

Both Clinton and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who introduced competing bills during the Dubai ports fracas, are poised to introduce similar amendments on the immigration bill offering reimbursements to localities that incur expenses helping out illegal immigrants.

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