Guest worker program survives

The L.A. Times reports:

A controversial bill that would overhaul the nation's immigration system survived its first major test Tuesday, when the Senate overwhelmingly defeated a bid by two Democratic senators to eliminate a key component: a program to allow foreign workers into the country temporarily.

The amendment — the first in the debate and the first of a number of attacks expected from liberal lawmakers — sparked a contentious exchange over whether the temporary worker program would depress the wages of Americans.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who cosponsored the amendment with Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.), criticized the temporary worker program as "a way to keep our workers down, keep them weak and, in my view, destroy the middle class."

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), a principal author of the bill, countered that a temporary worker program would protect wages for American workers.

"We are trying to take illegality out of the equation," he said.

That Senator Kennedy is sure amazing.