Senate forges immigration deal

Senate leaders on Thursday night announced a deal that breathes life into the bipartisan immigration bill that appeared to be stalled just days ago.

{mosads}The deal, which would bring the legislation back to the floor as early as next week, came as a bipartisan group of negotiators worked through Thursday to overcome a procedural hurdle that led Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada to pull the bill from the floor last week. Reid, along with Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, agreed Thursday to bring the bill to the floor after the Senate finishes its work on energy legislation.

“We met this evening with several of the senators involved in the immigration bill negotiations,” Reid and McConnell said in a joint statement. “Based on that discussion, the immigration bill will return to the Senate floor after completion of the energy bill.”

Details were scarce Thursday night, and after the meeting no senators would comment on what transpired for 45 minutes behind closed doors in Reid’s office. McConnell even walked in silence to his office as a crowd of reporters peppered him with questions on the status of the bill.

But Thursday’s announcement appears to remove the concerns voiced last week by most Republicans when Reid sought to shut down debate over the bill. McConnell rallied Republicans to defeat the motion over concerns that not enough of their amendments had been voted on by the Senate.

Before the meeting, key Senate negotiators said there would be 19 amendments voted on: 10 from the Republicans and nine Democratic proposals.

Despite the agreement to move forward, a fierce battle is expected from GOP hard-line opponents who characterize the bill’s provisions to create a pathway for citizenship for the 12 million illegal immigrants as “amnesty.”

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), a staunch opponent of the bill, criticized both his party leaders and Democrats over what he said is a “rigged” process to bring the bill back to the floor.

“The only amendments that could be brought up are ones they wanted or they all agreed to kill,” DeMint said. “It certainly is not the tradition of the Senate to have a group of people deciding which amendments could be offered.”

A number of Democrats also have deep concerns that the bill does not do enough to reunite immigrants with their families and would create an underclass of low-wage workers through its guest worker program.

Earlier Thursday there were indications that, if some of the amendments were adopted, Democratic support could erode further. Among those amendments is one Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) that would speed up the requirement for illegal immigrants to “touch back” to their home country when awaiting their visa application to be processed.

Still, proponents on both sides expressed confidence that the measure could clear the Senate before the July 4 recess.

“I think the votes are there to pass this bill,” said Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.).