Washington, D.C. – The Senate immigration proposal went down Thursday for a second time and U.S. Senator Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., hopes it won’t get back up.

          Enzi and a group of conservatives left no stone unturned in their effort to defeat the bill. Their focus has been directed at a provision in the legislation that would grant illegal immigrants amnesty, essentially rewarding them with citizenship.

          "If people keep insisting on the whole package there will be no package," Enzi said. "There are policies we can and should put in place to help resolve our immigration problems, but nothing is going to happen until we secure our borders and I won’t stomach amnesty. Neither will the American people. Hopefully this latest defeat will show proponents of this bill that you can’t just ram bad policy through. You have to listen to your constituents."

          The Senate voted 46-53 on a procedural motion to limit debate and vote on the bill. The motion needed 60 votes to pass and failed with only 46.

          Enzi said the legislation was destined to fail because leadership cut corners and cut deals without first sending it through the committee process.

         "Bills that don’t go to committee, don’t make it through. There is a reason a committee of about 20 members considers a piece of legislation, debates it and improves it before it goes to the floor for all 100 senators to consider. There’s also a reason the Wyoming Legislature makes trading votes a crime. Wyoming legislators know that a bill put together with a ‘you vote for my part and I’ll vote for yours’ results in very bad legislation."

          Enzi said there is a way to put in place good immigration policy, but how this particular bill has been put together is an example of how not to do it.

         "If senators work in committee and then on the floor using my 80 percent rule, where you concentrate on the 80 percent of the solutions you agree on and throw out the 20 percent you don’t, they could put together sensible legislation. Part of the 80 percent we agree on is securing our borders, but amnesty is part of the 20 percent and we will not agree on that. It should be tossed in the garbage heap," Enzi said. "Until we make a supreme, credible and real effort to secure our borders, we are only kidding ourselves about our national security and our economic security."

         Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., pulled the bill Thursday from consideration after the failed vote.