The immigration bill is dead, at least for now, and who would have thought it would be Bayh rather than Lugar who took the more conservative course?
Republican Sen. Richard Lugar voted for an unsuccessful effort to move the overhaul of immigration laws toward final passage while Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh voted with the majority against it.
Bayh said he was concerned that the bill wasn't tough enough on making sure illegal immigration was controlled before setting up a guest worker program and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already here.
Lugar's spokesman said the senator's votes "have attempted to be constructive in this process as he agrees with the president that the status quo is not acceptable and we must find a realistic solution to illegal immigrants living in this country."
If a solution is just going to make a problem worse, the better course is to do nothing. Suppose there is any chance officials will now start enforcing current immigration law instead of ignoring it and calling it "broken"?
