Immigration reform is still on, says Bush

Immigration reform is still on, says Bush
WASHINGTON - The defeat of President Bush's planned immigration legislation this week underlines the fact that he no longer has the power to persuade the Congress to back his ideas simply because the Democrats are now in control. Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, who played a stellar role in drafting the legislation so as to make it acceptable to both parties, is sure that they will not give up on the legislation and get back to it in future.

The Senate failed to back the measure, which calls for a temporary guest worker program to enable illegal immigrants to legalize their stay in the country. Additional features of the bill included tightening border security and also making it a merit-based immigration to the US in future.

President George W. Bush who is in Germany will meet the lawmakers on this return, but slowly he will find that the blame for the bill is being put onto his shoulders. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said that Bush was not to blame for the failed legislation.

"This bill is going to pass not because people say, 'I want to do a favor for the president,' " Chertoff said. “It will pass because the logic of the president has been saying. The president has been very actively engaged in this process."

Joel D. Kaplan, deputy White House chief of staff reacted by saying that they would continue to lobby for the bill. “When senators are faced with the prospect of the status quo continuing, they will become more supportive of the reforms in the bill," he added.

Democrats said Bush would have to work on the Republicans for getting the bill passed, rather than try to blame them for its failure.