Tabled

It would appear that the immigration bill that has gotten both sides of the aisle riled up has been tabled until June:

Senate leaders agreed Monday that they would wait until June to take final action on a bipartisan plan to give millions of unlawful immigrants legal status.

The measure, which also tightens border security and workplace enforcement measures, unites a group of influential liberals, centrists and conservatives and has White House backing, but it has drawn criticism from across the political spectrum. In a nod to that opposition, Senate leaders won't seek to complete it before a hoped-for Memorial Day deadline.

"It would be to the best interests of the Senate ... that we not try to finish this bill this week," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record), D-Nev., as the chamber began debate on the volatile issue. "I think we could, but I'm afraid the conclusion wouldn't be anything that anyone wanted."

The bipartisan compromise cleared its first hurdle Monday with a bipartisan Senate vote to begin debate on a separate immigration measure. Still, it faces significant obstacles as lawmakers seek dozens of modifications to its key elements.

Republicans want to make the bill tougher on the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. Democrats want to change a new temporary worker program and reorder priorities in a merit-based system for future immigration that weights employability over family ties.

Reid is being quite diplomatic in saying that the bill shouldn't be finished this week. Considering that I doubt that most of the Members have yet to read the bill through in its entirety, waiting until everyone has had a chance to digest this bill makes sense. However, it isn't quite dead.

It would also make sense to take a much closer look at some of the provisions contained therein.

How is it possible that illegal aliens are entitled to a tax amnesty plan that no American citizen would be entitled to ordinarily and the excuse for the inclusion of this provision is one that the IRS would laugh at if proposed by a US citizen taxpayer? The Administration pressed for that measure, and it makes no sense at all.

Does this bill actually create the first permanent temporary visa? There's absolutely no incentive for an illegal alien to renew the visa and border control cannot take action to deport such individuals.

Enforcement of various provision is so limited so as to be laughable.

And how would all this affect the economy? What would millions of illegal immigrants do to an already overburdened Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security program funds that are expected to run dry with the retirement of baby boomers? It would make the situation even worse.

Don Surber notes that Congress has already surrendered on this bill and will table it until June. They may have realized that ramming this thing through before the Memorial Day weekend would produce unacceptable backlash.

Newt Gingrich notes that similar sentiments were made by proponents of the immigration bill back then, and none of the enforcement provisions came to pass. This bill would provide new rights to millions more and enforcement is little more than a hope.

UPDATE:
Here's the full roll call of those who voted on the cloture of S. 1348:
Akaka (D-HI)
Alexander (R-TN)**
Bayh (D-IN)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Bond (R-MO)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Brownback (R-KS)
Burr (R-NC)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Chambliss (R-GA)**
Cochran (R-MS)**
Coleman (R-MN)**
Collins (R-ME)**
Conrad (D-ND)
Craig (R-ID)**
Domenici (R-NM)**
Durbin (D-IL)**
Ensign (R-NV)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Graham (R-SC)**
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)**
Harkin (D-IA)**
Hatch (R-UT)
Inouye (D-HI)
Isakson (R-GA)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Kohl (D-WI)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Landrieu (D-LA)**
Lautenberg (D-NJ)**
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)**
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Lott (R-MS)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCaskill (D-MO)
McConnell (R-KY)**
Menendez (D-NJ)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)**
Reed (D-RI)**
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)**
Salazar (D-CO)
Schumer (D-NY)
Smith (R-OR)**
Snowe (R-ME)
Specter (R-PA)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Stevens (R-AK) **
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (R-VA)**
Webb (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)

The following senators voted against cloture and against the guest worker/amnesty in sheep's clothes S. 1348:

Allard (R-CO)**
Baucus (D-MT)**
Bunning (R-KY)
Byrd (D-WV)
Coburn (R-OK)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)**
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Dole (R-NC)**
Dorgan (D-ND)
Enzi (R-WY)**
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)**
Roberts (R-KS)**
Sanders (I-VT)
Sessions (R-AL)**
Shelby (R-AL)
Sununu (R-NH)**
Tester (D-MT)
Thomas (R-WY)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)

Senators that did not cast a vote:
Not Voting - 8
Biden (D-DE)**
Clinton (D-NY)
Dodd (D-CT)
Johnson (D-SD)**
Kerry (D-MA)**
McCain (R-AZ)
Nelson (D-FL)
Obama (D-IL)

Most interesting is the fact that Biden, Clinton, Dodd, McCain, and Obama are all candidates for President. There are two possibilities for their choice of not voting. Either they couldn't quite figure out which way to vote on this issue that wouldn't cause the least amount of grief and punted, or they were too busy campaigning to be around for a vote.