Immigration Reform Flops In Senate

A resolution for comprehensive immigration reform failed to pass in the Senate today, after lawmakers wouldn’t give enough required votes for the measure.

This comes after Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar voiced optimism for the measure, which will be given more time for the possibility of passage.

More after the flip.From the AP:

By a vote of 33-63, the Senate fell far short of the 60 votes that would have been needed to limit debate on the immigration measure and put it on a path to passage. Republicans – even those who helped craft the measure and are expected to support it – banded together to oppose that move, while a majority of Democrats backed it.

Republicans were seeking assurances they would get chances to add several conservative-backed changes that would toughen the measure.

Proponents in both parties were scrambling to find a way of reversing a blow their compromise sustained earlier Thursday, when the Senate voted to phase out the bill’s temporary worker program after five years.

If a compromise is not obtained, this could mean another failed session on immigration reform.

Erin Rosa was born in Spain and raised in Colorado Springs. She is a freelance writer currently living in Denver. Rosa's work has been featured in a variety of news outlets including the Huffington Post, Democracy Now!, and the Rocky Mountain Chronicle, an alternative-weekly in Northern Colorado where she worked as a columnist covering the state legislature. Rosa has received awards from the Society of Professional Journalists for her reporting on lobbying and woman's health issues. She was also tapped with a rare honorable mention award by the Newspaper Guild-CWA's David S. Barr Award in 2008--only the second such honor conferred in its nine-year history--for her investigative series covering the federal government's Supermax prison in the state. Rosa covers the labor community, corrections, immigration and government transparency matters. She can be reached at erosa@www.coloradoindependent.com.