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Border Amendment To Immigration Bill Passes Senate

Another Big Step Forward For Immigration Reform
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WASHINGTON -- Senators formally added an amendment on Wednesday that increases border security measures in the "gang of eight" immigration bill, with negotiations continuing on whether additional amendments will go for votes before the full legislation is brought for a vote, likely before the July 4 recess.

The border amendment from Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.) passed in a 69 to 29 vote, with 15 Republicans voting in favor. The Wednesday vote was similar to a 67-27 test vote that took place on Monday, but with the addition of four senators who were not present at the earlier vote.

Republicans who voted for the amendment both times included Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Jeff Chiesa (N.J.), Susan Collins (Maine), Bob Corker (Tenn.), Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), John Hoeven (N.D.), Orrin Hatch (Utah), Dean Heller (Nev.), Mark Kirk (Ill.), John McCain (Ariz.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Roger Wicker (Miss.). Wicker has said he is still likely to vote against final passage of the bill.

The border security amendment vote was one of three votes held so far on Wednesday, including a procedural vote to move forward to the amendment vote. That measure to move ahead passed 68 to 30, with Wicker voting in opposition.

A later vote to move ahead with the bill as a whole passed 67 to 31, but lost the votes of both Wicker and Chiesa.

Most of the Republicans who voted in support of the Corker-Hoeven amendment have declined to say whether they will vote for the final bill, although most are expected to. One, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), told reporters he is unlikely to support the bill because it won't include amendments he favors. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) gave a firm commitment on Tuesday to vote for the bill as a whole, writing in The Salt Lake Tribune that the legislation is necessary to prevent future swells in unathorized immigration. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) also said he would support the total bill if the border security amendment was passed.

The gang of eight hopes to pass the immigration bill later this week with 70 votes, in order to put pressure on the Republican-controlled House to consider it. That might not happen: House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told Republicans in a closed-door meeting Wednesday that the lower chamber will not bring up the Senate bill, according to Jonathan Strong of National Review.

See The Huffington Post's estimated whip count, based on the senators' public statements and their stance on the border amendment, here.

The border security amendment requires several additional measures before undocumented immigrants could move from provisional status to legal permanent residency. Under the bill, undocumented immigrants would be given a path to citizenship. The government would need to build 700 miles of border fence and add 20,000 patrol agents. The legislation would also require full implementation of E-Verify, a system that would require employers to check the legal status of potential hires; additional biometric measures for security in airports; and funding for surveillance.

Senators opposed to comprehensive immigration reform have argued the border security amendment is not strong enough and leaves in place problems that they see in the full bill. Advocacy groups such as Numbers USA, which is advocating against the bill, agree.

Some pro-immigration reform groups are also frustrated that senators chose to increase border security requirements in the bill, which they argue are unnecessarily arduous. CAMBIO, a coalition of reform groups, wrote a letter to the "gang of eight" on Tuesday to express their dissent.

"The Corker Hoeven compromise doesn't just come at a high price: this amendment makes border communities a sacrificial lamb in exchange for the road to citizenship," Christian Ramirez, Director of the Southern Border Communities Coalition and a member of CAMBIO, said in a statement.

Republican supporters of the bill said Tuesday they hope additional amendments will go for a vote. Leadership was working on a deal for each side to receive 10 amendment votes, but as of Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said there was still no deal. Reid told reporters at a press conference that he could not add the amendment votes unless senators agreed, and that some calling for more votes had also held up the process.

"I want to do everything I can to maximize the number of votes we get on the bill, and I want to make sure everyone feels it's a fair process," he said. "My concern is the folks who wrote me a letter saying we need more amendments are the same people that stopped us from having amendments the first couple of weeks of this legislation."

"We're going backwards, not frontwards," Reid said on the Senate floor Wednesday, on the effort to find a deal on amendments.

Hoeven told reporters he hoped that Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) would support the bill if additional amendments are added. Portman proposed an amendment to strengthen the bill's requirements on E-Verify.

"I can't vote for it without it," Portman said Tuesday of the bill and his E-Verify amendment.

Gang of eight Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on Tuesday that he would like for the amendment to be added.

"I hope we can get a series of votes," he said. "We should, we should be able to work it out. We should be adults about this and give people a chance to have their say about the bill, but Rob Portman's amendment would, I think, improve the bill."

This is a developing story and has been updated.

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Before You Go

10 Major U.S. Federal Immigration Laws
The Naturalization Act of 1790(01 of10)
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The Naturalization Act of 1790 was our country's first set of laws dealing with citizenship. Applicants had to be "a free white person" of "good moral character." This excluded indentured servants and slaves. Good moral character was substantiated by establishing residence for at least one year in the state from where he was applying, and at least two years of residence in the country. The Naturalization Act of 1795 would extend that requirement to five years, and is still standard today. (credit:Flickr)
The Fourteenth Amendment, 1868(02 of10)
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A Reconstruction Amendment that was added to the U.S. Constitution following the Civil War, the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment establishes for the first time that children born on U.S. soil would be conferred U.S. citizenship regardless of their parent's citizenship status, race, or place of birth. Last year, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) introduced the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2011 to Congress, and challenged this. The bill would require that at least one parent be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident for a child to be granted citizenship. According to the bill's text, the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2011 would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, and "clarify those classes of individuals born in the United States who are nationals and citizens of the United States at birth."Prior to this, Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA) introduced a similar bill in 2009. (credit:Getty)
The Naturalization Act of 1870(03 of10)
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The Naturalization Act of 1870 explicitly extended naturalization laws to "aliens of African nativity and persons of African descent." This meant that for the first time, African-American children would be conferred citizenship upon birth. Asian immigrants and other people of color are excluded per the Naturalization Acts of 1790 and 1795. (credit:Getty)
The Page Act of 1875(04 of10)
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Named after Republican Representative Horace F. Page, this is the first U.S. federal immigration law to explicitly prohibit the immigration of a particular group: persons of Asian descent. Primarily meant to limit Chinese immigrant labor and prostitution, the Page Act prohibited the immigration of: (1) contracted labor from "China, Japan, or any Oriental country" that was not "free and voluntary," (2) Chinese prostitution and (3) criminals and women who would engage in prostitution. Ultimately, the Page Act severely restricted the immigration of Asian women. Only 136 of the the nearly 40,000 Chinese immigrants who arrived in the months before the bill's enforcement were women. And, it would pave the way for the Chinese Exclusion Act.In this picture, Michael Lin, chair of the 1882 Project, a coalition of rights groups seeking a statement of regret over that year's Chinese Exclusion Act, speaks on May 26, 2011 in Washington, DC, at the US House of Representatives in front of a reproduction of a 19th-century sign that aimed at rousing up sentiment against Chinese Americans. Lawmakers introduced a bill that would offer an official statement of regret for the act, which banned further immigration of Chinese to the United States and ended citizenship rights for ethnic Chinese. (AFP PHOTO/SHAUN TANDON). (credit:Getty)
The Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882(05 of10)
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Signed by President Chester A. Arthur, the Chinese Exclusion Act was the first federal immigration law to prohibit immigration on the basis of race. The bill barred all Chinese laborers, skilled and unskilled, from immigrating to the U.S. for ten years. It was made permanent by 1903, and was not lifted until the 1943 Magnuson Act. The 1898 Supreme Court decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark finally extended naturalization laws to persons of Chinese descent by ruling that anyone born in the United States was indeed a U.S. citizen. This editorial cartoon from 1882 shows a Chinese man being excluded from entry to the "Golden Gate of Liberty." The sign next to the iron door reads, "Notice--Communist, Nihilist, Socialist, Fenian & Hoodlum welcome. But no admittance to Chinamen." At the bottom, the caption reads, "THE ONLY ONE BARRED OUT. Enlightened American Statesman--'We must draw the line somewhere, you know.'" (Image Source: Frank Leslie's illustrated newspaper, vol. 54 (1882 April 1), p. 96. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons). (credit:Wikimedia Commons)
The Naturalization Act of 1906(06 of10)
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The Naturalization Act of 1906 further defined the naturalization process: the ability to speak English was made a requisite for immigrants to adjust their status. (credit:Flickr Creative Commons)
The Immigration Act of 1924(07 of10)
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U.S. President Coolidge signed this U.S. federal bill into law. It capped the number of immigrants who could be admitted entry to the U.S. and barred immigration of persons who were not eligible for naturalization. And, as the Naturalization Act of 1790 required, an immigrant had to be white in order to naturalize. The quotas varied by country. Image Source: Flickr Creative Commons, NYCMarines. (credit:Flickr Creative Commons)
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (The McCarran-Walter Act)(08 of10)
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The McCarran-Walter Act kept up the controversial Immigration Act of 1924, but formally ended Asian exclusion. (credit:Flickr Creative Commons)
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965(09 of10)
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When President Lyndon Johnson signed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, it abolished the quota system that favored immigration from Europe and limited immigration from Asia and South America. (credit:Wikimedia Commons)
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996(10 of10)
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The 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) is a piece of legislation that defined an array of issues to do with legal and illegal immigration -- from outlining how border patrol agents should administer visa processing, to the minutiae of how to handle deportation proceedings -- IIRIRA established enforcement and patrolling practices. (credit:AP)
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