WASHINGTON (By Mike Madden, Arizona Republic) April 5, 2006 — The Senate is heading for a showdown over immigration on Thursday, after Democrats stalled debate Tuesday and set the clock ticking toward a crucial vote.

Searching for a compromise proposal that would bridge a divide in the Republican ranks, key GOP members spent hours negotiating behind closed doors but didn't settle on anything by the end of the day.

At issue is a bill passed last week by the Senate Judiciary Committee that would beef up border security, allow an estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants to earn legal status and let 400,000 foreigners come to the United States every year for work.

Democrats moved to end debate Tuesday night. Under Senate rules, that triggers a vote 48 hours later. If on Thursday 60 of 100 members support ending the debate, then the bill can be put to a final vote. A simple majority is needed for passage.

If the vote to end debate fails and Republicans can't come up with another proposal, the Senate probably won't pass a bill before lawmakers leave for a two-week recess starting this weekend. And that could jeopardize chances of any reform becoming law this year because of a tight schedule to consider other topics.

"I don't know if we have the votes or not," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., co-sponsor with Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said of a plan that the Judiciary Committee bill is largely based upon. "We continue negotiations, and I hope we get the votes."

All but a few Democrats are united in favor of the bill, and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said he would use Senate rules to block amendments Democrats believe are designed to make the bill harsher on undocumented immigrants. Republicans are split, but no bill will be able to pass without significant support from the GOP's 55 members.

A handful of Republicans on both sides of the debate, including McCain and Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., met throughout the day with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. Kyl favors a plan he wrote with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, that would require undocumented immigrants to leave the country before applying for permanent legal status, or green cards.

Negotiations on Tuesday, which senators said were far from over, focused on a possible amendment to the bill that would let only undocumented immigrants who had been in the United States for at least five years earn legal status without leaving the country. Others would have to go to a port of entry briefly to file paperwork from outside U.S. borders though they wouldn't have to leave for long.

A recent Pew Hispanic Center report estimated that 4.4 million undocumented people have been in this country less than five years.

Lawmakers are scheduled to meet for more negotiations this morning.

With November's midterm elections looming, political pressures are mounting.

The House passed a bill late last year that focuses only on border security and interior enforcement, which would make illegal presence in the United States a felony.

That bill has sparked massive protests by immigrants and their supporters around the country, and marches and rallies are scheduled across the country Monday, including in Phoenix.

With its provision for undocumented immigrants to earn legal status, the Senate Judiciary bill has been more widely accepted by immigrant rights groups.

On Tuesday, the White House released a statement that said the Bush administration approved of most of the Judiciary Committee bill. But it didn't address the toughest questions about how undocumented immigrants might be able to get green cards, except to say that Congress must not pass an amnesty.

Supporters say the Senate bill doesn't give amnesty, because undocumented immigrants would have to pay a total of $2,000 in fines and wait six years before applying for green cards. But opponents say it's an amnesty in all but name, objecting to allowing immigrants who came to the United States illegally to obtain legal status. Anything the Senate passes would have to be reconciled with the House's dramatically different approach before it could be sent to President Bush to sign into law.

So some supporters want a wide majority in favor of a Senate bill to strengthen their position in what could be difficult dealmaking later.

"We're trying to come up with something that most Republicans and Democrats can agree with," said McCain, whose staff briefed Kennedy's about the GOP negotiations.

Still, Reid said senators should vote on the Judiciary Committee bill.

"We do not need a compromise," he said. "It's in our bill. We have a bill that's bipartisan."

Despite the dwindling time left to finish this week, debate on Tuesday came to a complete stop except for some occasionally angry exchanges over why Democrats refused to let amendments come up for votes. Senators have filed 100 amendments.

One amendment by Kyl and Cornyn to bar criminals from applying for legal status or joining a guest-worker plan was supposed to come up for a vote, but Reid said he would block that or any or any other amendment until Democrats had vetted them all.

That frustrated opponents of the Judiciary Committee's bill.

"Most of us feel like we ought to have a chance to offer amendments and let our voices be heard and then to have a vote and let majorities rule," Cornyn said. "That's how we shape legislation. That's how we begin to build some consensus and find what the will of the Senate may be."

Some Republican supporters said they feared the Democrats' tactics could make it harder to get the 60 votes needed in Thursday's confrontation.

"It detracts and dilutes support," said Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan.

Advocates for immigrants, meanwhile, were wary of the negotiations, saying it wasn't clear how any proposal would affect the people who are living in this country illegally.

"People are going to review this not in terms of whose name is on the bill but whether it works," said Angela Kelley, deputy director of the National Immigration Forum, which supports the Senate Judiciary bill.