Amendment threaten immigration bill

WASHINGTON, June 4 (UPI) -- Immigration legislation before the U.S. Senate faced a new round of amendments that its authors said threatened the coalition that brought it to the floor.

Democrats are pushing amendments that would broaden the family-based immigration program and double the number of green cards for parents of U.S.-born citizens, The Washington Post reported.

But U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., who led Republican negotiations on the immigration bill, said he won't support it with the amendments.

Republicans in the Senate were pushing amendments that would make immigrants ineligible for legalization for a longer list of crimes and prohibit legalized immigrants from obtaining the earned-income tax credit.

Democrats told the Post the Republican amendment could kill the immigration bill.

People on every side of the immigration debate agreed that the current system isn't working and Congress needs to do something.

"The glue that is keeping this process going is the absolute agreement by all the disparate groups that the current system is absolutely dysfunctional," Bruce Josten, chief lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, told the Post.