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 News from Around the Americas | March 2006 
Full Senate to Take Up Immigration Debate
 Associated Press
| | Republican Senator Jon Kyl, from Arizona (right), and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Senator Arlen Specter discuss immigration at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, DC. (Joe Marquette/Bloomberg News) |
Washington - Immigrant supporters claimed their first major victory since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks after a bipartisan group of senators approved legislation that would give millions of illegal immigrants a chance at citizenship.
"It's a big day for us. We may not have a lot of big days, but this is a big day," Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, a pro-immigrant group, said after the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a package of immigration and border security measures Monday.
Restaurant owners, agricultural groups, Democrats and others who had been pushing for a way for immigrants to earn legal permanent residency - the first step to citizenship - also claimed victory.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. said he hoped President Bush, who advocates a so-called guest worker program, would participate in efforts to fashion consensus legislation.
For his part, President Bush said he was determined to see some provision made on behalf of illegal immigrants who have been working in this country.
Bush said that no one should discount his ability to get a new immigration bill from Congress despite his struggles with lawmakers in the past year. "Don't underestimate me," Bush told Mexican and Canadian reporters in an interview Monday.
The president is insisting that Congress send him a bill that not only strengthens U.S. borders, but also allows foreigners to have a guest permit that lets them work temporarily in the United States in low-paying jobs. "It's a humane way to deal with people who are making a contribution to our economy," he said.
The bill's next step is the full Senate, where Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., is negotiating with other senators on how to handle the committee's bill and his own proposal, which focuses more on punishing employers who hire undocumented workers.
"The situation along our Southern borders now ranks as a national security challenge, second only to the war on terror," Frist said Monday. "Every day thousands of people violate our frontiers."
Frist said the Senate will begin a debate on immigration later this week with the aim of passing a bill by April 7. The debate will give Americans a glimpse of two candidates for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008: Frist and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., an architect of the bill approved by the Judiciary Committee.
McCain said the turnouts in the hundreds of thousands - particularly among Hispanics - at recent rallies in Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington helped galvanize support for the bill.
"I'd like to point out that a lot of these young people are children and grandchildren of people who came here illegally who are citizens themselves who don't want their grandmother sent back to Guadalajara," McCain said Tuesday on ABC's "Good Morning America."
McCain acknowledged that there were "sharp divisions" within the Republican Party over the approach to illegal immigration. Despite Bush's support for letting illegal immigrants with jobs avoid deportation, many Republicans vow to prevent what they say amounts to amnesty from becoming law.
In general, the Judiciary Committee's bill is designed to strengthen enforcement of U.S. borders, regulate the flow into the country of guest workers and determine the legal future of the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the United States illegally.
The bill would double the Border Patrol and authorize a "virtual wall" of unmanned vehicles, cameras and sensors to monitor the U.S.-Mexico border. It also would allow more visas for nurses and agriculture workers, and shelter humanitarian organizations from prosecution if they provide non-emergency assistance to illegal residents.
The most contentious provision would permit illegal aliens currently in the country to apply for citizenship without first having to return home, a process that would take at least six years. They would have to pay a fine, learn English, study American civics, demonstrate they had paid their taxes and take their place behind other applicants for citizenship, according to aides to Kennedy, D-Mass., who was instrumental in drafting the legislation.
Kennedy credited the "faith community" for building support for a guest worker program.
The Judiciary Committee also approved a five-year plan to p?ovide visas for about 1.5 million agriculture workers and allow them to eventually seek legal residency.
Recent polls show that about six in 10 Americans oppose letting illegal immigrants remain in the country and apply for citizenship and three of every four don't believe the government is doing enough to stem the continuing tide of new arrivals.
"For years, the government has turned a blind eye to illegal aliens who break into this country," said Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo. Tancredo helped lead the fight for a bill the House passed in December that would define illegal immigrants as felons, build fences across a third of the U.S-Mexican border and enlist local police and the military to help patrol it.
Soon after assuming the presidency, Bush called for measures to provide businesses with a reliable immigrant work force. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks he put aside negotiations with Mexico on a guest worker program. Mexican President Vicente Fox, with whom Bush meets this week in Cancun, had hoped his friendship with the former Texas governor would lead to legal status for Mexicans working illegally in the U.S.
Any bill produced by the Senate would have to be reconciled with the House measure. Despite Bush's support for letting illegal immigrants with jobs avoid deportation, many Republicans vow to prevent what they say amounts to amnesty from becoming law.
"I will oppose amnesty at all stages," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who was on the losing side of Monday's 12-6 vote by the Judiciary Committee. He said Congress "made a mistake in 1986" by granting amnesty to 3 million illegal immigrants "and now we have 12 million."
A GOP Faceoff Over Illegal Immigration
Gail Russell Chaddock - Christian Science Monitor
Immigration reform splits the party so deeply it could stall legislation this year.
Washington - Senate majority leader Bill Frist and GOP Sen. Sam Brownback stood together on trade, war, judges, guns, energy, abortion, and war, but they are bookends in this week's debate on "earned" amnesty for illegal aliens - the toughest issue before the Senate this year.
They illustrate the rift that runs through both parties, but especially the GOP, which controls both the House and Senate. That rift yawns so large that it could keep Congress from passing any immigration legislation this year.
Senator Frist, a prospect for a presidential run in 2008, wants a "virtual barrier" to secure borders first. It's about what it means to be a nation, he says: "A nation that can't secure its borders can't secure its destiny or administer its laws."
Senator Brownback, also a prospect for 2008, backs border security, but says he also wants a way to get 11 million undocumented people into a legalized status. It's about human dignity, he says: "One of the key measures in any society is what you do for the so-called least of these."
Polls show a strong majority of Republican voters oppose amnesty for those in the country illegally, but business groups, a core GOP constituency, want to assure a supply of low-wage workers for agriculture, construction, restaurant, and other services.
For Frist, who stumbled badly over his handling of the Terri Schiavo debacle a year ago, it's a chance to lead his party through a political mine field. "I'm here to solve problems, not stand around," he said in a statement on the floor of the Senate early Monday afternoon.
Frist had given the Senate Judiciary Committee an ultimatum: Produce a bill by end-of-day Monday, or the Senate would take up his own immigration reform plan. Brownback is one of four Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, including chairman Arlen Specter (R) of Pennsylvania, to side with Democrats in a bid for comprehensive immigration reform this session of Congress.
The Judiciary Committee's bill opens a path to citizenship for at least 11 million people living in the United States illegally. It allows those who were?in the US before 2004 to get a temporary work visa, if they pay a $1,000 fine and clear a criminal background check. After six years, they would be eligible for permanent legal residence, if they learn English and pay back taxes and another $1,000 fine.
Frist's alternative, still in play, focuses exclusively on border security. That means more boots on the borders, unmanned aerial vehicles, cameras, sensors, and "a virtual barrier to cover every mile of our 1,950-mile long border with Mexico." (The House bill also includes a 700-mile wall along the southern border.)
The Frist bill also requires employers to verify the legal status of their workers, using a federal electronic database. Those employers engaging in a pattern of hiring illegal workers would face up to six months in jail. Those living in the country illegally are guilty of a misdemeanor; under the House bill, it's a felony.
Right up until the last vote late Monday afternoon, prospects for completing the complex bill looked unlikely. In the end, committee chairman Specter, as well as GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Mike DeWine of Ohio, and Brownback of Kansas lined up with all eight Democrats on the panel to complete a bill. The 12-to-6 vote electrified pro-immigration groups, who jammed the back of the Judiciary panel's hearing room.
"I'm guessing we'll get 40 Democrats and 20 to 30 Republicans who will vote for comprehensive reform," says Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, a Washington advocacy group. "The idea is to get the best possible product out of the Senate, either as a prelude to a conference that goes the Senate's way - or a train wreck," he adds.
About six months ago, Mr. Sharry says he asked Brownback why, as a potential presidential candidate, he would be willing to risk alienating conservative voters, especially in Iowa, an early caucus state. "He told us, 'It's in the Bible.' He has pages of Scripture that refer to welcoming the stranger," he says.
"In all our talking to politicians, I'd never heard that," Sharry adds.
Brownback says he doesn't recall that meeting but stands by the comment. "What makes it tough is that we want to be a nation of laws," he says. "As I talk to people across Iowa, a number of people have questioned me on the immigration system. People aren't anti-immigrant, but they don't want the laws broken."
Senators on both sides of the aisle are watching the massive mobilization of immigrants, legal and illegal, in the streets of major US cities. "There is no question that what happened out in Chicago and Michigan made a big difference," said Sen. Edward Kennedy (D) of Massachusetts, a cosponsor with Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona of immigration reform that includes a path to legalization for illegals.
Frist had been gearing up for a procedural clash with Democratic leader Harry Reid, who had threatened a filibuster. Now, he must repair rifts in his own caucus.
Opposing Immigration Bills
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved Monday an immigration bill that differs markedly from one passed by the House this past December. Here are key points:
• Judiciary - Illegal immigrants in the US before 2004 may work legally for six years if they pay a $1,000 fine and have no criminal record. They become eligible for permanent residence upon paying another $1,000 fine and any back taxes and learning English.
• House - Makes illegal presence in the US a felony. Requires detention of all non-Mexican illegal immigrants arrested when entering the US and mandatory sentences for those smuggling them in.
• Judiciary - Creates a pilot guest-worker program for some 1.5 million farm workers. New immigrants may obtain temporary work visas. Both groups can earn permanent residence.
• House - Does not include a guest-worker program. Requires all employers to use a database to verify Social Security numbers of employees within six years or face civil or criminal penalties.
• Judiciary - More than doubles the number of Border Patrol agents by 2011. Authorizes a "virtual wall" of unmanned vehicles, cameras, and sensors to monitor the US-Mexico border.
• House - Requires building two-layer fences along 700 miles of the 2,000-mile border between Mexico and the US. |
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