Senate Democrats stop bid to send 6,000 troops to border

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President Obama’s Democratic allies in the Senate on Thursday killed a move by former presidential rival John McCain to send an additional 6,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Arizona Republican says the security situation along the border has deteriorated so badly that 3,000 troops are needed just to help protect his state. Even though McCain won support from a dozen Democrats, he failed to muster the 60-vote super-majority required to adopt his plan under the rules of the 100-member Senate.

Democrats also repelled more than $2 billion in additional border security spending proposed by border state Republicans John Cornyn of Texas and Jon Kyl of Arizona.

The action came as the Senate continued debate on an almost $60-billion measure funding Obama’s troop surge in Afghanistan, foreign aid and domestic disaster relief.

The Republican proposals were comparable to those made several years ago when many Republicans pressed border security steps, such as a border fence, instead of a more comprehensive approach to overhauling the U.S. immigration system. Obama supports comprehensive immigration reforms, but prospects for substantive legislation appear bleak in an election year. On Tuesday, he promised to send 1,200 National Guard troops to the border.

In the past, McCain has advocated changes to immigration laws that would give illegal immigrants already in the U.S. an opportunity to earn their citizenship. But as violence along the border has escalated — and in the face of a spirited primary challenge from former Rep. J.D. Hayworth — McCain has adopted a harder line on immigration issues.

“The borders are broken,” McCain said Thursday. “We have an obligation to our citizens to secure our border and allow them to lead lives where they [do] not live in fear.”

-- Associated Press