Senate Rejects Immigration Stricture (Cornyn amendment)

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/06/washington/06cnd-immig.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1181157815-5z4w8Qd2AdZNjJ4l0wJ+eg

Senate Rejects Immigration Stricture

By ROBERT PEAR
Published: June 6, 2007

WASHINGTON, June 6 — The Senate rejected a measure this afternoon that would have made it much harder for many illegal immigrants to eventually achieve legal status under a proposed overhaul of the immigration system.

By a vote of 51 to 46, the senators defeated a proposal to bar legal status for aliens who disobey deportation orders or who engage in identity fraud. The proposal was made in the form of an amendment, offered by Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, to an overall immigration bill that is being debated.

The Cornyn amendment was considered crucial, because many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States commit some kind of identity fraud, for example when they use bogus Social Security cards in trying to get jobs.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts and a sponsor of the overall bill, argued against the Cornyn amendment, declaring that to approve it would be “undermining the basic core” of the legislation.

Mr. Kennedy offered an amendment of his own, which was approved by 66 to 32, to deny legal resident status to gang members, sex offenders and people who are guilty of domestic violence — but not to those who engage in document fraud. In effect, Mr. Kennedy’s amendment offered political cover to lawmakers who favor the overall legislation but do not want to appear too easy on immigrant law-breakers.

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