Senate votes to delay immigration reform bill

In a near repeat of a vote exactly three weeks ago today, the U.S. Senate voted 46-53 against subjecting a bipartisan immigration reform bill to a yes-and-no vote. In doing so, the status quo remains on the immigration debate, and it appears that the proposal will be delayed several months into autumn or even into next year.

Yesterday the Senate voted down several amendments to the bill such as one that would’ve barred illegal immigrants from obtaining green cards. Yet it was a bipartisan effort that led to today’s defeat:

“While (New Jersey Senator) Menendez and a few other Democrats oppose the bill, the main opponents have been Bush's fellow sunbelt Republicans. GOP Sens. David Vitter of Louisiana, Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Jeff Sessions of Alabama led the charge, often backed by Texan John Cornyn.”

Ultimately, the continuation of the status quo based on today’s vote will have serious repercussions:

“‘The price of failure will be hundreds of more people dying in the desert,’ said Eliseo Medina, an executive vice president of the service employees union. ‘The price of failure will be more workplace raids and families separated as breadwinners are arrested and deported. The price of failure will be more public anger at the broken immigration system.’”

Image- The Stanford Review

Sources- The Latin Americanist, Yahoo! News, MSNBC, New York Times