Recriminations over the failed immigration reform bill escalated over the weekend, with Democrats and Republicans accusing each other of derailing the bill for political reasons.
“Unfortunately, this compromise is being blocked by the Senate Democratic leader, who has refused to allow senators to move forward and vote on amendments to this bill,” President Bush said in his weekly radio address.
“I call on the Senate minority leader to end his blocking tactics and allow the Senate to do its work and pass a fair, effective immigration reform bill,” he said.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., meanwhile, said Bush was trying to “blame Democrats to distract from his own troubles.”
The Nevada Democrat said Bush and Senate Republicans “lacked the backbone to stand up to the extreme right wing of their party, filibustered reform twice in two days, and put partisan politics ahead of border security and immigration reform.”
Although a bipartisan group of senators called a news conference Thursday to say passage of a compromise immigration bill was imminent, the deal fell apart by Friday.
Republicans said Democrats decided to forgo passage of the bill so they could have an issue to use against Republicans in the November elections. According to this scenario, Democrats would link Republicans with a bill the House passed in December that cracks down on illegal immigrants without creating a guest worker program.
Such a program was a key component of the Senate bill that fell apart Friday. Democrats said they were reluctant to pass the legislation for fears that the guest worker program would be removed when the bill was reconciled with the House version in conference committee.
“Democrats were not going to allow amendments that were going to undo the agreement that had been reached,” Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., told NBC on Sunday.
Kerry suggested the deal fell apart because many conservative Republicans, especially in the House, oppose Bush?s call for a guest worker program, which would grant legal status to millions of illegal immigrants.
“If President Bush and the Republicans had not had their own internal squabble, we would have had an immigration bill that would be done today,” Kerry said.
But Republicans pointed out that Democrats have their own internal squabbles over immigration. Some labor unions fear that a guest worker program would cost American jobs.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., told “Fox News Sunday” that Democrats were to blame for the bill?s failure.
“The compromise fell apart,” he said, “because the Democrats put political advantage over the national interest.”
