Historic immigration reform clears major Senate hurdle

WASHINGTON — With a solemnity reserved for momentous occasions, the Senate passed historic legislation Thursday offering the priceless hope of citizenship to millions of immigrants living illegally in America’s shadows. The bill also promises a military-style effort to secure the long-porous border with Mexico.

The bipartisan vote was 68-32 on a measure that sits atop President Barack Obama’s second-term domestic agenda. Even so, the bill’s prospects are highly uncertain in the Republican-controlled House, where conservatives generally oppose citizenship for those living in the country unlawfully.

Fourteen Republicans joined all 52 Democrats and two independents to support the bill.

Both of Oklahoma’s senators voted against the measure.

In the final hours of debate, members of the socalled Gang of 8, the group that drafted the measure, frequently spoke in personal terms while extolling the bill’s virtues, rebutting its critics — and appealing to the House members whose turn comes next.

“Do the right thing for America and for your party,” said Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., who added that his mother immigrated to the United States from Cuba. “Find common ground. Lean away from the extremes. Opt for reason and govern with us.”

Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake said those seeking legal status after living in the United States illegally must “pass a background check, make good on any tax liability and pay a fee and a fine.”

The bill’s opponents were unrelenting, if outnumbered.

“We will admit dramat- ically more people than we ever have in our country’s history at a time when unemployment is high and the Congressional Budget Office has told us that average wages will go down for 12 years, that gross national product per capita will decline for 25-plus years, that unemployment will go up,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.

“The amnesty will occur, but the enforcement is not going to occur, and the policies for future immigration are not serving the national interest.”

The legislation’s chief provisions includes numerous steps to prevent future illegal immigration and to check on the legal status of job applicants already living in the United States. At the same time, it offers a 13-year path to citizenship to as many as 11 million immigrants now in the country unlawfully.