Fury grows over US immigration bill
Sphere: Related ContentWashington - Trent Lott doesn’t usually answer his Senate phone himself, but when angry callers are burning up the lines – as they are over this week’s debate about revising America’s immigration laws – the Republicans’ No. 2 Senate leader has picked up to hear what they’ve got to say.
A lot of the talk is misinformation, he says. Talk radio and the blogs were blasting the compromise bill, which includes a guest-worker program and a path to legal status for many of the 12 million illegal immigrants already in the US, well before the text of the bill was ready for senators on Tuesday.
“We talked for 15 minutes,” says the senator, recounting one call. “I can’t talk to everyone in America for 15 minutes…. But if you cower in the shadows, you’ll get pummeled…. You’ve got to stand up.”
Withering attacks on the bill aren’t only by phone: Deal-busting amendments are surfacing on the Senate floor. By week’s end, the bill’s defenders expect to have an idea of whether their “grand bargain” will hold – and then they’ll head home on Memorial Day break to meet the backlash face to face.
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