GOP border-control push voted down

Democrats defeat parts of Bush plan

WASHINGTON -- Democrats in the Senate scuttled an end-run move by Republicans on Wednesday to pass some of the most popular elements of President Bush's failed immigration bill, including a $3 billion plan to beef up security along the U.S.-Mexico border.

But after winning a procedural vote, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., immediately announced that the Senate would soon approve the border control money after stripping out policy provisions that Democrats deem too harsh.

That gesture ended a difficult day in relative peace.

The key 52-44 vote broke largely along party lines. With it, Democrats killed a move by Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to resurrect the border security plan and combine it with GOP-backed policy provisions from the immigration debate last month.

Those provisions were opposed by most Democrats and included allowing law enforcement officers to question people about their immigration status, cracking down on people who overstay their visas and imposing mandatory prison sentences on illegal border crossers.

The peaceful twist came at the end of a battle behind the scenes that Graham and other Republicans such as Gregg and John Kyl of Arizona started about midday. They had previously argued that a comprehensive approach to immigration reform was the only way to tackle such a polarizing issue to attract bipartisan support.

But in the wake of last month's failure to pass Bush's hotly contested comprehensive immigration bill -- decried as "amnesty" by conservative talk radio and opposing lawmakers -- Graham and the others changed their minds and offered the border security plan, combined with the tough GOP policy provisions.

Graham and Kyl said the public won't accept more controversial elements, especially the plan to give millions of illegal immigrants a way to earn U.S. citizenship, until the porous border with Mexico is made more secure.

"Border security is the gate that you must pass through to get to overall comprehensive reform," said Graham, who is up for re-election next year and facing political heat at home for backing Bush's unpopular immigration plan.

The broader immigration bill had been Bush's top domestic priority.