Senate Not to Debate Border Security Before Other Immigration Issues
Posted on: Wednesday, 17 May 2006, 00:01 CDT
WASHINGTON _ The Senate endorsed a comprehensive fix for the nation's immigration woes, on Tuesday, rebuffing a call to secure the borders before it considers a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. Senators also refused to axe a guest worker program for prospective foreign workers.
Buoyed by President Bush's concerted public push Monday night and again Tuesday for an immigration bill that pairs increased border security with a route to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants, supporters of the sweeping Senate compromise claimed new momentum.
The president's support "allows us to get a strong, comfortable majority in the Senate," said Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla.
With Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., intent on finishing the immigration bill by the end of next week, senators waded through several controversial amendments Tuesday.
On a 55-40 vote, the Senate rejected a proposal by Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., that would have delayed implementation of the bill's legalization and guest worker programs until the federal government could affirm that the borders are secure.
Without that provision, Isakson said, "Then we will have given a wink and a nod one more time to those who would come here illegally."
But opponents said the amendment's real effect would be to narrow the Senate legislation to an enforcement-only bill similar to what the House adopted last December.
Failure to deal with the 11 million to 12 million people living here illegally and to create a pathway for workers who will come in the future would guarantee border-security and illegal immigration problems for years to come, they said.
"You have to have a comprehensive approach if you are going to gain control of the border," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. "History teaches that."
Though the Isakson amendment failed, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, predicted that the 40 votes it received would ensure the measure's consideration when House and Senate negotiators meet in what's sure to be a contentious session to bridge the vast gulf in the two chambers' immigration philosophies.
The Senate also rejected an effort by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-Neb., to close the door to future foreign workers under the bill's temporary worker program. His amendment, which would have limited the guest worker program to illegal immigrants already in the U.S., fell on a 69-28 vote.
Dorgan and allies from the left and right voiced concern that U.S. workers would be harmed by new inflows of cheap labor.
"I cannot support the undermining of U.S. working conditions," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.
But Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and other temporary worker program backers said that unwillingness to include such an initiative would leave the door open to new illegal immigration and would hurt an aging U.S. society in need of more workers.
The Senate, on a voice vote, agreed to trim the number of foreign workers who can enter the U.S. annually on temporary worker visas to 200,000 from 325,000.
Working off the Senate floor, senators resolved what loomed as one of the biggest fights: A showdown with Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., over their plan to deny legalization to felons and people ordered deported from the United States.
Critics contended the language was so broadly written as to potentially deny legalization to virtually all illegal immigrants, a point the border-state Republicans rejected.
In a late-hour compromise, the language was modified to provide waivers in cases of "extreme hardship" for the spouses or children of illegal immigrants with deportation orders. The measure, expected to be voted upon Wednesday, still would deny legal status to illegal immigrants convicted of felonies or three misdemeanors.
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Source: The Dallas Morning News
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