WASHINGTON (By Nicole Gaouette, LATimes) June 28, 2007 — Lawmakers killed the Senate immigration reform bill today, voting 46 to 53 to move to a final vote on the controversial measure, 14 short of the 60 required.

The defeat is a setback for the bipartisan team of lawmakers who worked for months to craft a bill they hoped would draw enough support from both parties to pass. It represents a blow to President Bush, who threw his full support behind broad immigration reform and whose Cabinet played a key role in shaping the legislation.

And it represented a victory for grassroots conservatives who, spurred by right-wing radio talk show hosts, overwhelmed Congress with phone calls and e-mails assailing the legislation.

The legislation's demise makes the fate of immigration reform in the near term uncertain. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) made it clear to Senate leaders and the White House that she would not bring up immigration legislation unless the Senate passed it first.

This morning, the senators behind the bill took to the floor to make impassioned pleas urging their fellow lawmakers to support the measure, even as the several Senate phone systems crashed from the volume of calls from people for and against it.

"Even if you disagree with this bill, don't end this debate," said Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), who urged his colleagues to reject "these voices of exclusion" opposing the measure and not "say we are surrendering to these negative voices across America."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), a key member of the team that worked to produce the bill, said that in the aftermath of its failure, more illegal immigrants would continue to cross the border, and she rapped conservative critics for their focus on the provision that would allow illegal immigrants to gain legal status.

"To those people who opposed this as an amnesty bill, I don't know how you can say more strongly, this is not," Feinstein said.

Calling up images of Nazi Germany, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) chastised opponents for clinging to the idea that America could simply track down and deport more than 12 million illegal immigrants. "America deserves better," he said.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a staunch opponent of the bill, cited a study by the Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan arm of Congress, which said the bill would reduce illegal immigration by only 13%. "Let's stop here now, let's go back to the drawing board and come up with a bill that will work," he said.

Though critics have argued that the Bush administration could deal with illegal immigration by enforcing existing law, the bill's backers and administration officials such as Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff have pointed out that there is no existing mandatory system to ensure that illegal immigrants are not hired at work sites. The bill would create one.

"At the end of the day, it's the most important measure that we could have," said Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.).

After the vote, Bush called it a "disappointment" that Congress had failed to act on the bill.

"Congress really needs to prove to the American people that it can come together on hard issues," he said.

Sponsors vowed to return to the issue at some point.

"We will live to see another day," said Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) "We will be back," Kennedy said. "This issue isn't going to go away, and we will succeed."

Added Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.): "We're going to have to redouble our efforts."

Kyl came under enormous pressure from conservative constituents who railed against the measure's path toward citizenship for illegal immigrants.

"I've learned one main lesson," he said. "A lot of Americans have lost faith in their government – they don't think we can control our borders, win a war, issue passports."

Another sponsor who took political heat at home was Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who is up for reelection this year and whose office was besieged with calls from angry constituents.

"The reason I want to be the senator from South Carolina is to bring out the best in my state and my country and do the hard things," said Graham, who predicted that now that Congress had failed to pass an immigration bill, cities and states would enact their own measures on employment and benefits.

Opponents, on the other hand, were relieved. The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, which patrols the border to prevent illegal immigration, hailed the vote and the citizens who made their views known in Washington.

"We have accomplished a small but significant victory today in the fight to secure our nation's borders," said the group's founder, Chris Simcox. "Beating this appallingly bad bill back in the Senate was crucial, but we must keep up the fight in Washington, D.C., until our borders are truly secured, a border fence is built and our laws enforced."

"We have to demonstrate results," said Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.). "Americans will have a compassionate view" toward the illegal immigrants now here "once we commit ourselves" to protecting borders.

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) said the issue had "created real divisions within the party," and he predicted they "can and will be healed if we respond to the very clear message from the American people and attack security at the border and the workplace first."

Watching the debate on the Senate floor was Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose), who chairs the House Judiciary subcommittee on immigration. Afterward she issued a statement faulting the Senate for "its inability to move forward" and saying the House would now "take stock of the situation to determine whether anything can be done." House Republicans have said the bill is "dead on arrival" in that chamber.

The bill concentrated on security provisions that would have added thousands of agents at the border, along with physical and virtual barriers, cameras and radar. It would have created a work site system to verify that all workers have legal status.

Once those systems were up and running, the bill's other provisions would kick in. A temporary-worker program would bring in 200,00 immigrants a year, and eligible illegal immigrants who had been on a probationary legal status until that point would get the bill's "Z Visa."

Opposition to the bill centered around Republican objections to the Z Visa program.

"A big amnesty with inadequate enforcement will cause the problem to grow, not diminish," said Vitter, who alongside Sessions led the procedural objections to the bill. Vitter said the vote would reveal whether the Senate as a body was "arrogant" and "out of touch."

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), citing the crashing phone lines in Senate offices across Capitol Hill, said the silver lining of the debate was that it had re-engaged the American people.

But the bill also drew Democratic opposition from lawmakers worried about the potential impact on low-wage American workers and concerned about border security, particularly from freshman Democrats, such as Sens. Claire McCaskill of Misourri, Jon Tester of Montana and Jim Webb of Virginia, who won their seats from Republicans.

The bill had a phoenix-like return last week after appearing dead in early June, when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pulled it from the floor after it failed a test vote. Senators worked behind the scenes to resolve a conflict over amendments before bringing the bill to the floor last week.

Graham, who has been a favorite target of the bill's opponents for his part in writing it, warned his GOP colleagues that today's vote would be their only chance to get what they wanted out of an immigration bill. Saying Democrats would not go away and would never allow a bill that only includes a fence, Graham told Republicans to "remember this day if you vote no. You will never have this day again.… This is as good as it is going to get."