Bush blames Democrats for stalled immigration reform
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush, trying to head off the latest in a string of setbacks, blamed Democratic "blocking tactics" on Saturday for stalling an immigration overhaul and urged an end to the impasse. Bush used his weekly radio address to point the finger at Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid for the breakdown on Friday of a Senate compromise plan to reform immigration law and give millions of illegal immigrants a chance for citizenship.
Failure to approve the bill, which would create a temporary worker program as proposed by Bush, could derail major changes in immigration laws for this year, dealing another blow to a president beset by his lowest public approval ratings since taking office. Gridlock over the legislation, which would be the biggest immigration overhaul in two decades, touched off recriminations.
"Unfortunately, this compromise is being blocked by the Senate Democratic leader who has refused to allow senators to move forward and vote on amendments to this bill," Bush said. "I call on the Senate Minority Leader to end his blocking tactics and allow the Senate to do its work and pass a fair, effective immigration reform bill," he added.
Reid, a Nevada lawmaker, responded that Democrats were "committed to comprehensive, bipartisan immigration reform," and said that Bush was "flat out wrong about what happened to the immigration bill." "It was President Bush and Republicans in Congress who lacked the backbone to stand up to the extreme right-wing of their party" and vote for a bipartisan plan, Reid said in a statement. "Sadly, President Bush and Republican leaders could not even get senators who supported and endorsed this bill to vote for it," said Sen. Ken Salazar, Colorado Democrat, in a statement...
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