Immigration bill clears Senate hurdle

By ANDY SOLTIS

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BEEFED UP: The new measure, if it becomes law, would inject $30 billion into tougher security along the US-Mexico border.
The Senate last night cleared the way for a historic immigration-reform bill that would pump more than $30 billion into new security measures along the border with Mexico and offer a chance at citizenship for millions living in the country illegally.
After three weeks of debate, the final vote was 67-27, with 15 Republicans agreeing to advance. The vote sets the stage for formal Senate passage of the legislation, perhaps as early as tomorrow.

President Obama gave the bill a last-minute push from the White House on the eve of the vote.
“Now is the time to do it,” Obama said before meeting with nine business executives who support a change in immigration law. “I hope that we can get the strongest possible vote out of the Senate so that we can then move to the House and get this done before the summer break.”
But conservative critics counterattacked in a scramble for votes.
“It will encourage more illegal immigration and must be stopped,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told his allies.
The Senate legislation would:
* Create a 13-year pathway to citizenship for an estimated 11 million immigrants living illegally in the United States.
* Call for a “surge” in manpower and technology to secure the 2,000-mile border with Mexico, including a doubling of the Border Patrol with 20,000 new agents.
* Create one program for temporary farm laborers to come into the country, and another for lower-skilled workers to enter permanently.
* Call for an expansion of an existing visa program for highly-skilled workers, a gesture to high-tech companies that rely heavily on foreigners.
The all-but-certain Senate approval would send the legislative package to the House, where its future is unclear.
Most conservative Republicans in the majority are strongly opposed to citizenship for those who came to the country illegally or overstayed their visa.
Some GOP lawmakers have appealed to Speaker John Boehner not to permit any immigration legislation to come to a vote for fear that, whatever its contents, it would open the door to an unpalatable compromise with the Senate.
At the same time, the House Judiciary Committee is in the midst of approving a handful of measures related to immigration, an action that ordinarily is a prelude to votes in the full House.
Leaving little to chance, the US Chamber of Commerce announced it was launching a new seven-figure ad buy yesterday in support of the bill. “Call Congress. End de facto amnesty. Create jobs and economic growth by supporting conservative immigration reforms,” the ad said.
The legislation was originally drafted by a bipartisan Gang of 8, four senators from each party who negotiated a series of political trade-offs over several months.