Senator Patrick Leahy says Senate passage this week of comprehensive immigration reform shows that the Senate still can work together and accomplish things.
But the Vermont Democrat, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee and led the immigration debate, says he fears for the bill's fate in the Republican-dominated House.
Leahy says the bill, which beefs up border security and provides a path to citizenship for 11 million people in the country illegally, could die in the House if its leadership listens to what he calls a tiny minority of radical, Tea Party Republicans.
Among the bill's benefits to Vermont, he says, are work visas for immigrant dairy farm workers.
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