"The morning after": a post-S.1639 round-up

• Salvadorean and Mexican presidents lament the failure of S.1639 in Congress.
• Sen. Reid (yea) calls defeat a win for a "status quo that amounts to silent amnesty".
• Sen. Specter (yea) said: "We have to find some way to deal with [the 12 million undocumented immigrants] which is realistic."
• Sen. Kennedy (yea) said "[W]e are in the struggle for the long haul."
• Sen. Webb (yea): "Enforce the laws on the books."
• Sen. Sander (nay) says his concerns with the bill centered around the middle class.
• Sen. Harkin (nay) said: "America is a nation of immigrants, but we are a nation that believes in controlled immigration."

More guesses on when immigration reform could return to the Senate floor

We posted earlier that it seemed likely that immigration reform will be shelved for the remainder of the U.S. presidential election campaign season. The Congressional Quarterly adds a little more:

The future now appears bleak for any immigration overhaul legislation in the remaining 18 months of the current Congress.

Refusal to invoke cloture now means “the bill is dead for this year,” Arlen Specter, R-Pa., warned before the vote. And with elections looming next year, it will not return before 2009, he predicted.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., did not go that far. “This is a legislative issue,” he said. “It will come back. It’s only a question of when.”

Basically, it seems almost certain immigration reform is temporarily, Congressionally dead.

Earlier: BREAKING: Senate blocks immigration reform bill

(This is today's last post.)

Immigration bill A.M. update

Well, it seems that the "Reid scenario" didn't come into play yesterday afternoon. However, we do have more insight as to what may happen today and the rest of this week.

The Los Angeles Times, among several newspapers today, reports that there is growing opposition among Senate Democrats to S.1639:

A handful of Democrats who could be crucial to the bill's fate, including California's Barbara Boxer, remains undecided. And Tuesday, five Democrats who welcomed debate on the issue a month ago switched position and voted to oppose further discussion of the bill.

Regardless, the Senate will be discussing the 26 proposed amendments to the bill today.

Earlier: MORE BREAKING: Senate memo predicts Reid may push for a final vote on the bill today

MORE BREAKING: Senate memo predicts Reid may push for a final vote on the bill today

PajamasMedia, a blog/op-ed operation, says it has obtained a memo that predicts that Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev) will use "an unprecedented combination of legislative procedures to shove through the immigration bill today".

The memo was written by a former Secretary for the Majority and Minority in the U.S. Senate, Elizabeth B. Letchworth. She calls this potential move by the Senate Majority Leader the "Reid scenario". In an e-mail she writes:

“The Reid scenario of offering amendments in strategic places in order to block any and all other amendments will commence when they return from their weekly party caucuses @ 2:15PM. [Today, Eastern] At the end of the amendment. offering process Sen. Reid will file cloture on the bill.”

To read the memo in full and to understand which procedures Reid could use and how, go here.

(This is today's last post.)