GOP senator: Health reform could kill immigration reform
Posted on Friday, March 12 @ 00:42:18 EST
Topic: Illegal Immigration News in the US
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 WASHINGTON - It was immigration reform day at the White House Thursday as President Barack Obama met separately with advocates and two senators determined to pass a comprehensive bill.
But Sen. Lindsey Graham, the lone Republican senator who supports such a measure, said after his meeting with Obama that if Democrats continue to push through health care reform using a procedural maneuver called reconciliation, then he believes the immigration issue is dead for this year.
Subjects: Illegal immigration, Sen. Lindsey Graham, comprehensive immigration reform, secure identification card
March 11, 2010
Dena Bunis
Orange County Register Communications
"For more than a year, health care has sucked most of the energy out of the room,'' Graham, R-S.C. said in a statement.
"Using reconciliation to push health care through will make it much more harder for Congress to come together on a topic as important as immigration.''
So far Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who chairs the Senate's immigration subcommittee, has only been able to recruit Graham from among Republican senators in this effort. Schumer and Graham brought Obama a framework for a comprehensive bill.
While the details have not been made public, their bill is expected to include a legalization plan for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living here, beefed up border enforcement and a secure identification card that will let employers know that the people they are hiring are authorized to work in the United States.
These elements are similar to those included in bills in 2006 and 2007, both of which came close but fell short in the Senate.
The House has yet to vote on an immigration reform measure.
Most Republicans – including Orange County's congressional delegation – strongly oppose any bill that would give legal status to illegal immigrants.
Still unclear is whether the Schumer-Graham measure will include a temporary worker program.
Most Democrats oppose such a provision and those Republicans who have supported immigration reform before – most notably Sen. John McCain of Arizona, say the issue is a non-starter without a future worker clause.
In a statement after the immigration meetings, Obama said he "told both the senators and the community leaders that my commitment to comprehensive immigration reform is unwavering, and that I will continue to be their partner in this important effort.''
In his post-meeting statement, Schumer said he and Graham asked Obama "to help us gain increased support in the Senate and to help us work out the final aspects of a potential agreement between business and labor on the future flow of lower-skilled labor.''
A march on Washington by immigration advocates is planned for March 21.
The leaders of the groups organizing that demonstration told Obama Thursday they wanted to see a framework made public in time for that march.
"We want results," said Angelica Salas, director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. "That's what we're going to be expecting in the next couple of weeks."
Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union, said he was well aware of the political difficulties involved in getting immigration reform done this year.
"I think it's incumbent on us - business, labor, churches, community groups together to make the case to the Republican Party and the American people that this is a good thing for this country,'' Medina said.
"I think it's going to be very hard. I don't think it's impossible."
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