EDITORIAL DEATH FROM DETAILS LAWMAKERS FAIL THE COUNTRY AGAIN ON IMMIGRATION REFORM.

THE thing that finally killed comprehensive immigration reform legislation last week was not the conflicting philosophies of the two sides. No, what did in the Senate's immigration bill was a disagreement about how many years the bill's temporary guest-worker provision would run.

That is an oversimplification of one of the many amendments blocking the passage of the bill in the Senate, to be sure. But it certainly characterizes how the nation's lawmakers, unable to find consensus on their larger difference, allowed desperately needed reform to fail in its final hours because of mere details.

Right now it's about solving a massive problem posed by illegal immigration, not about any of those small details. It's about getting a mechanism in place that can be tinkered with as needed down the road.

Opponents of the bill, primarily the more conservative Republicans, might feel they've won something from this battle over legislation they characterized as "amnesty" because it included a path to citizenship for the millions who already participate in the U.S. economy.

But what have they won for themselves and the country? Another year of a broken immigration system with neither carrot nor stick, and so many deficiencies that it puts both the legal and illegal residents at risk every day.

For their parts, the architects of support for the bipartisan bill, Sens. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass, and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., promised to keep working for reform. And President George W. Bush is urging the Senate to reopen debate. But more talk isn't likely to force a compromise. That will take muscle.

We need immigration reform now, not more debate over immigration reform. And every day that lawmakers quibble over the details is yet another day they are failing the entire country in solving the country's single most pressing domestic need.