Immigration Legislation Is Dead

President Bush's immigration bill essentially died Thursday in the Senate, when members voted against advancing the controversial legislation.

The tally was 46 to 53, 14 votes shy of the 60 needed to end debate.

The president, who visited the Capitol this month to push hard for the legislation, delivered a brief statement shortly after the vote saying he was "sorry" Congress could not reach agreement, calling its "failure to act" a "disappointment."

"Congress really needs to prove to the American people that it can come together on hard issues," Bush said.

The bill would have provided a path to citizenship for some of the 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. and toughens border security.

the question is now what will happen? Doing nothing is amnesty for both illegal immigrants and those that hire them.

I truly believe the solution is tougher enforcement of the employment laws. If employers who hired illegal immigrants were arrested and jailed it would make the cheap labor much less attractive. There needs to be a national database where employers can check vital statistics of the people applying for jobs. I understand that many people use forged documents or stolen identities to work and a national database would help eliminate this practice.

There also needs to be a concerted government effort to help the countries in the region such as Mexico to improve the economic prospects of its own citizens. As long as it is hard to feed your family in these countries, the immigrants will continue to come by any means necessary.

The status quo is not working.