Forty-four senators opted to throw on the trash heap thousands and thousands of promising young people who are innocent bystanders to America's immigration war.

The senators ought to be ashamed for blocking a Senate vote on the DREAM Act, which would let young people brought to this country illegally through no fault of their own earn legal resident status. Fifty-two senators from both sides of the aisle voted to end debate — eight short of the 60 necessary.

Eligible under the proposed law would be young people brought here before age 16, who have lived here for at least five years, graduated from high school, have good moral character and attend at least two years of college or enlist in the military.

These aspiring college students and soldiers are hardly the type of young people you would want to throw away — but that's what the senators did when they refused to let the bill stand for a vote. It likely would have passed, since a majority of senators are on record supporting the bill.

Now, even the most optimistic supporters of immigration reform are pessimistic about the chances of any reform until after the 2008 elections — not even of the bipartisan AgJOBs bill, which would help the agriculture industry.

Too bad their passion was not enough to save these innocent, upstanding young people from shortsighted, cowardly politics that prevent reasonable solutions to the larger challenge of desperately needed immigration reform.