On Capitol Hill, the Senate has dealt what is likely a fatal blow to the bipartisan immigration bill. On Thursday, Senate supporters fell 14 votes short of the 60 needed to move toward a final debate. Despite support from President Bush, two-thirds of Republican senators voted against the measure. They were joined in opposition by 15 Democrats. The bill would have brought the most comprehensive overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws in two decades. But it drew criticism from all sides of the immigration debate. It included new provisions increasing militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border, legalizing a limited number of immigrants through increased fees and new restrictions, and putting time limits on the stays for hundreds of thousands of guest workers. Bill proponent Senator Edward Kennedy lamented the defeat but vowed to continue efforts toward immigration reform.

Sen. Edward Kennedy: “This is the issue, Mr. President, whether we are going to have a constructive and positive resolution of this issue, or are we going to be naysayers, naysayers, bumper sticker solutioners. Let’s just say, 'Oh, we are amnesty, with or against amnesty, and therefore we are against this bill.' America deserves better. This issue is too important. Now is the time. This is the place, and the Senate is the forum where we have to take this action.”

Immigrant rights groups said the defeat shouldn’t end efforts to act on immigration. John Trasviña of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund said: “We now call upon the House of Representatives to address, and not ignore, our immigration policies so they can serve our families, our security and our economy.” In Mexico, President Felipe Calderon also criticized the Senate failure.

President Felipe Calderon: “The U.S. Senate has made a serious mistake by not recognizing a problem which is there and to avoid with today’s decision to give a sensible, rational and legal solution to the immigration problem that cannot be solved simply with speeches.”

Calderon spoke alongside visiting Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. Ortega said U.S. immigration woes should reinforce the importance of regional integration in the Southern Hemisphere.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega: “It’s a world with a sense of solidarity, of justice, of identity, of love of one’s neighbor. As Christ says, 'Love your next-door neighbor as you would yourself.' If we want a world like that, we want more importantly a unified Latin America, Caribbean. Unity is not bad for anyone.”