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Immigration See other Immigration Articles Title: Senate Revives Bill Giving Illegal Immigrants Chance To Become U.S. Citizens WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate leaders reached a deal Thursday on reviving a broad immigration bill that could provide millions of illegal immigrants a chance to become American citizens and said they'll try to pass it before the end of May. The agreement, brokered by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), breaks a political stalemate that has lingered for weeks while immigrants and their supporters held rallies, boycotts and protests to push for action. "We congratulate the Senate on reaching agreement and we look forward to passage of a bill prior to Memorial Day," said Dana Perino, deputy White House press secretary. Key to the agreement is who will be negotiating a compromise with the House, which last December passed an enforcement-only bill that would subject the estimated 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States to felony charges as well as deportation. Frist said the Senate will send 14 Republicans and 12 Democrats to negotiate with the House, with seven of the Republicans and five Democrats coming from the judiciary committee. The remaining seven Republicans will be chosen by Frist and remaining seven Democrats chosen by Reid. Frist said a "considerable" number of amendments would be debated when the Senate begins debating the bill early next week. It would be the most comprehensive rewrite of immigration laws since the so-called Simpson-Mazzoli bill some 20 years ago. Reid acknowledged on the Senate floor Thursday morning that he "didn't get everything that I wanted" in the agreement, but said Frist didn't either. Reaching the agreement is "not easy with the political atmosphere," Reid said. Reid had been taking some criticism for refusing to move forward on the bill after complaining that Republicans were trying to undermine it with amendments and insisting that Democrats be allowed to have a say in who serves on the conference committee. Republicans, too, have had opposition from conservatives to the compromise proposal. These critics consider its path to citizenship provision for illegal immigrants and hundreds of thousands of future guest workers to be tantamount to "amnesty." They've also had to contend with fallout from opposition to the House bill that triggered countrywide protests by illegal immigrants and their supporters that drew hundreds of thousands in Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas and hundreds more in other cities and small communities. Presidential and midyear politics have been a subtext to the immigration debate. Frist and Arizona Senator John McCain, one of the architects of the legalization proposal, are prominent in speculation for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. The compromise bill the Senate will consider builds on legislation approved by the Senate judiciary committee 12-8, with six Republicans and all Democrats on the committee approving the measure. That measure absorbed a bill drafted by McCain and Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), that called for allowing illegal immigrants to work toward becoming legal permanent residents. President George W. Bush had helped accelerate progress on the bill after meeting with a bipartisan group of senators last month and stating clearer support for allowing illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.
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#1. To: Brian S (#0)
IMPEACH, INDICT, INCARCERATE every single mother fucker that is betraying America to the invading hordes of illegal aliens. Every single politician that is responsible for the bullshit going on in this country needs to be locked away in a deep dark hole for a very long time. I am so goddamned tired of these fuckers drawing a paycheck on the backs of taxpayers while they do NOTHING to represent the interests of the American People. THE AMERICAN CITIZENRY IS NOT REPRESENTED. THEY NEED TO WAKE UP TO THAT FUCKING FACT RIGHT NOW.
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