The US Senate on Thursday adopted sweeping reforms of immigration law that would allow millions of undocumented workers to seek legal status in the US.
The bill passed 62-36 despite deep divisions within the majority Republican Party and among Americans.
The Senate bill has the bipartisan support of Republican Senator John McCain and Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy as well as the backing of President George W. Bush.
Bush saluted passage of the text and said effective immigration reform must address both economic and border security needs and "honor America's great tradition of the melting pot."
"I look forward to working together with both the House of Representatives and the Senate to produce a bill for me to sign into law," he said.
However, the bill's final adoption is hardly guaranteed, as it differs sharply from a tougher bill passed in the lower House of Representatives, and the two must be reconciled.
"Today is not the day to celebrate. We have won a big battle but not the war," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said.
The Senate bill would create 200,000 temporary work visas for foreigners who take low-skill jobs, and double the number of US Border Patrol agents on the border with Mexico.
Most controversial is a provision that would allow many of the estimated 11.5 million foreign workers here illegally, many of them Mexican, to gain legal status.
The bill also includes funding to build a 600km wall along the Mexican border to block illegal entry.
The consequences of reform are so great for both countries that Mexican President Vicente Fox was on a three-day visit to the US to discuss immigration and labor with US business and political leaders.
"This is a historic day, one to celebrate," Fox told Mexican broadcasters from his presidential jet, in response to the Senate vote.
"It is a wonderful day for the United States and Mexico, but especially for Mexicans in the United States and their families," he said.
Senators wrapped up two months of debate on the reforms Bush has sought for more than two years.
The bill aims to stem illegal immigration but will welcome illegal immigrants who have already been integrated into US society -- derided by some as an "amnesty."
Senators will have difficulty bringing their bill into line with a much tougher version passed by the House in December. The House would make unapproved US entry a federal crime and bolster border security.
Immigrants' rights activists and religious officials fiercely oppose it.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in