Last night at 9:00 p.m. the Senate’s proposal for comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) was pulled from the floor debate. After a great deal of behind the scenes negotiations between Majority Leader Senator Reid and other Senators from both sides of the isles, a motion to invoke cloture was defeated. This means that a vote on CIR will not be held until the end of June, or perhaps even postponed for a few months.
 

The Senate’s effort to force a vote on a compromise for immigration reform, the “Grand Bargain”, failed by a vote of 45 – 50 last night. The vote to limit debate on the proposed comprehensive immigration reform legislation (CIR) and thereby force a final vote on the Senate floor was blocked at 9:00 p.m. Thursday night.  As a result, Senate Majority Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will move on to other matters and CIR will not be taken up again for several weeks, if not months. This may endanger the possibilities of a Senate vote on CIR before the August recess, or maybe even for this year.

Most Republicans voted to end debate, and opposed a vote, to gain more time to try to strengthen the bill’s requirements to tighten border security measures and to curtail the proposed legalization process for undocumented immigrants. Democrats supported some provisions of the bill but also opposed those provisions that they argued would create a second-class of citizens of a new crop of temporary workers (“Y” visa holders) and which would prioritize employability over family unity in future immigration.

The proposed CIR contained provisions that were both favorable to immigrants as well as provisions which would have made it more difficult for foreign workers to immigrate to the U.S.  The most publicized provisions were those that would have provided a path to legalization for millions of undocumented immigrants and would have alleviated immigrant visa backlogs, a new merit –based point system of immigration, and provisions to close the borders, enforce penalties for employing undocumented workers and which would have required employers check employees immigration status under a new government program.

We will continue to track the Senate’s discussions on this issue and will post on any new developments.