Washington Post
With a crucial test vote scheduled for today, Republican supporters ("Grand Masters of the Universe") of a sweeping immigration bill threw their weight yesterday behind a significant change to the legislation that would force illegal immigrants to return to their home countries to apply for legal status.
The change could rattle the delicate bipartisan coalition that forged the Senate's immigration overhaul, but supporters say it may be necessary to pull in enough Republican votes to secure passage by week's end. The bill's authors will have to muster 60 votes today to bring it back up for consideration. The legislation would then have to clear potential amendments before a showdown Thursday over whether to cut off debate and vote on final passage Friday.
Opponents declared yesterday that momentum and public opinion were on their side -- that if they cannot kill the legislation tomorrow, they will stop it by the end of the week.
"The longer this bill hangs out there, the more opposition grows," said Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). "Every day that goes by, more and more senators realize this is not the right immigration bill for America. It cannot be adequately fixed, and it must be stopped."
Posted by tyne at June 26, 2007