This is the headline from today’s Politico, and accords with what I’m hearing. But there definitely will be a debate later this month — Senate staff tell me that an amnesty bill will go straight to the floor on May 14 (i.e., it will bypass the Judiciary Committee altogether). The only question is, what bill? It could be a so-far non-existent compromise between Senators Kyl and Kennedy (that’s what the Politico story is about), or some version of last year’s Senate amnesty bill, or the new Flake-Gutierrez amnesty bill introduced last month in the House. Though it may seem odd to schedule debate on a bill that doesn’t exist yet, it makes a kind of sense — the president and the Senate leadership want an amnesty no matter what, and the only question is how they dress it up. But if Sen. Kyl, after all the White House effort focused on him, takes a walk and ends up opposing whatever Sen. Reid sends to the floor, the bill might have even less chance than last year — opponents need only 41 votes to prevent cloture (to end to debate and proceed to a vote) and without Kyl as cover, others may follow Sen Brownback’s example and change their minds.