Did The Immigration Bill Just Die?

And did unreliable GOP Senator Lindsey Graham do the killing?

Sen. Lindsey Graham, the sole Republican who was working on a bill to legalize illegal immigrants, in effect put the bill on the shelf on Tuesday, saying a debate now would destroy any prospects for passage and saying the issue needs to wait until 2012.

The remarks likely signal the end of any serious chance for broad immigration legislation to pass this year, since Mr. Graham, South Carolina Republican, was the best hope for a partnership with President Obama and Democrats who want to write a bill.

"It is impossible for me and any other serious Democrat to get this body to move forward until we prove to the American people we can secure our borders," Mr. Graham told Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who was testifying at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

"I believe we can do it by 2012 if we're smart," he said.

[. . .]

Mr. Graham has been working with Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, to write a bill, but said any effort to bring it up now would so anger Americans that it would kill any chance of getting the issue passed this year and in the near future.

"If immigration comes up this year, it's absolutely devastating to the future of this issue," he said.

Graham wants amnesty and he knows he'll never be able to get it this year. There's a definite movement against illegal immigration that's picking up steam all across the country. With budgets failing voters are starting to realize that we can't pay benefits to people who shouldn't be here in the first place. They also realize, which Graham still doesn't, that rewarding those who stole their way into the country in the past is not good policy.

We don't need an immigration bill, we need a federal government willing to protect our borders.