WASHINGTON: In a setback to 12 million illegal immigrants, including Indians, the US senate has derailed a landmark immigration bill that would have paved the way for regularisation of their status. Senators on Thursday, voted 53 to 46 against keeping the bill alive.

Bipartisan backers of the measure fell well short of the 60 vote super-majority needed to move the bill. The severe blow to the Comprehensive Immigration legislation has raised serious questions on the future of the more than 12 million illegal immigrants, including Indians.

The Senate had on Tuesday voted 64-35 to resume debate on the bill, which ties tough border security and workplace enforcement measures to a plan to legalise illegal immigrants. Political analysts believe that lawmakers will now be disinclined to take up the controversial bill before the Presidential elections of 2008.

Of interest and concern to India was not only the potential implications on the family unifications via the green card but also the expectation of a spike in the numbers of the H1B from 65,000 to 115,000 with built in annual increases.

One perception is that the current scheme of things on the H1B and the L-1 visas will continue to remain until such time a comprehensive immigration bill is passed on Capitol Hill, but the other view is that the tough amendments on the H1B and the L-1 visas could be taken up as "standalone" legislations in the months to come.

When President Bush's "grand bargain" on immigration fell apart, Jeff Sessions, the Republican senator from Alabama who is named after a pair of famous Confederates, was very proud. "Hopefully our Senate has learned some things," Sessions crowed on the Senate floor on Thursday after his colleagues killed a comprehensive overhaul of the nation's immigration law, bouncing on his toes and struggling to contain a grin.

For weeks, the son of a country-store owner from rural Alabama emerged as a front man on immigration, making it his mission to break the uneasy union that produced the bill. Usually a GOP role player, he derided the legislation as the "no illegal alien left behind" bill and its bipartisan sponsors as "masters of the universe."

"I've kind of enjoyed it, actually," Sessions said of the long days managing floor debate for the opposition. "I feel real comfortable that I have a good understanding of the issues and the deficiencies of this legislation, so I felt real good about it."