A landmark immigration bill in the Senate is facing a critical trial- whether it can survive hundreds of amendments from the left and right and still emerge relatively intact, AP reports.
The test will begin Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. As of Tuesday evening’s deadline for filing amendments, some 300 had been offered by Democrats and Republicans. A number of them, particularly from the GOP side, would strike at the heart of the bill in a way supporters say would destroy the fragile agreement between four Republican and four Democratic senators who wrote the legislation.
These include measures by Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., to limit the number of immigrants gaining legal status under the bill and to require control of the border before anyone can receive legal standing. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, would tighten criteria for legalization and require a new electronic employment verification system be implemented more than twice as fast as the bill contemplates. Grassley, the committee’s top Republican, filed the most amendments- 77.
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