Thread: Capitol border debate hot

http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_3564039

Immigration reform likely, but not without a fight
By Sara A. Carter Staff Writer

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Immigration was the focus of often-heated discussion in both wings of the Capitol on Thursday.

While a Senate Judiciary Committee began drafting an immigration reform bill Thursday, two House subcommittees got an earful from Texas law enforcement officials fed up with dangerously lax border security.

On the Senate side, one thing is certain: While an immigration reform bill is likely to be drafted this year, it won't happen without a fight.

Republicans and Democrats are split on the new bill designed to overhaul the nation's immigration laws. The comprehensive package includes a guest-worker program that is causing a deep rift among committee members. Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., wants to see the bill ready by the end of the month, something committee members agree is a daunting task, but not impossible.

"No state is quite as affected (by illegal immigration) as California is," said California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who expressed concerns with the bill's stringent enforcement and guest-worker program. Feinstein also serves on the committee. "This is a huge bill -- it's a very costly bill."

Specter's measure includes the guest-worker program proposed by President Bush last year. It would allow illegal immigrants to apply for a work visa for up to six years before having to return to their home countries, he said.

Other committee members suggested the program should give migrants the opportunity to apply for permanent residency in the United States.

The bill calls for the creation of a "virtual fence" along the border that will operate with new monitoring technologies. It also requires all employers to electronically verify whether their workers are legal, and it "streamlines the deportation process and reduces frivolous litigation."

"For example, aliens who have been ordered deported, and then slip back into the country illegally, are not entitled to a full judiciary proceeding again," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who offered several amendments to the bill.

Cornyn would like to see the government reimburse state and local police for training related to immigration assistance in support of federal agents, he said. He added that some federal funding should go to provide relief to hospitals along the border that have been overwhelmed with high costs due to illegal immigration.

Cornyn and Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said the bill should include a temporary-worker program for undocumented persons already in the country but that people in this program would be required to return home before applying residency.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, who co-sponsored amendments to the Specter bill with Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, said that it is necessary to include a guest-worker program to bring the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants residing in the United States out of hiding and that the reform package should focus more on the dangers at the border.

"Our national security requires us to know who is entering and living in the United States," said Kennedy, D-Mass.

"We can't afford to ignore illegal immigration any more. The vast majority of immigrants are undoubtedly motivated by their desire to work and support their families, but the lesson of 9/11 and the hundreds of terror attacks around the world since then is that some will enter the United States for deadly reasons."

More than 1.2 million illegal immigrants were apprehended in 2004, according to Salvador Zamora of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Senate leaders said at Wednesday's hearing that Border Patrol officials have caught more than 400,000 people in the first two months of this year -- about double from last year.

In the rear of the Senate hearing room, several Texas ranchers patiently listened. Their ranches run along the Mexican border, and they say their property has become a dumping ground for human smugglers and drug traffickers.

Mauro Garcia, a rancher who came in support of a Texas ranchers association, said his only hope is that the Senate will focus first on border security before implementing a guest-worker program.

"The thing is the people crossing our border have changed," Garcia said.

He said that 20 years ago many of the migrants who crossed his land were simple farm workers whom he would invite into his home for dinner.

He said over the past decade the situation has changed. Large groups of people, some of them drug smugglers and some from nations other than Mexico, have used his ranch, between Corpus Christi and Laredo, as a crossing point.

"It's a much more dangerous time, and they are much more dangerous people," Garcia said after the hearing. "Our border is open to everyone -- how secure is our southern border against terrorism?"

Shortly after the Senate hearing, two House panels -- the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims and the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security -- heard testimony from members of law enforcement and residents living near the border.

Sheriff Sigfredo Gonzalez, of Zapata County, Texas, testified that corruption and danger from Mexico has spilled into the United States. He insisted that the federal government draft legislation that would better secure the nation's borders and protect law enforcement officials required to patrol the dangerous terrain.

Sara A. Carter can be reached by e-mail at sara.carter@dailybulletin.com or by phone at (909) 483-8552.

Need to fill the Senate gallary with MS-13 gang bangers
to help our esteemed Senators understand priorities.

It's outrageous that they are even TALKING about such a bill.....we need to descend on Washington with pots of bubbling tar and a vanload of feathers.

I am thoroughly ticked at their irresponsibility. One hundred years ago they would have been hanged...for treason.

RR