http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=418143

On illegal migrants, consensus is elusive
House delegation feels intensity of polarizing debate
By CRAIG GILBERT
cgilbert@journalsentinel.com
Posted: April 22, 2006
Washington - Over the course of a two-week recess, Janesville Republican Paul Ryan says he's gotten an earful about immigration.

"It's what everybody is talking about," Ryan said. "What I see right here in the First Congressional District is a polarized electorate on this issue."

As Congress gets ready to renew the immigration debate, the political currents remain fierce and tricky.

The crackdown on illegal immigration passed by the House in December is opposed by most senators, key church and business groups and an emerging Hispanic political movement that has taken to the streets in protest.

But in interviews last week, Wisconsin's four House Republicans, who all voted for the bill, said their constituents are telling them they support the House's get-tough approach. That represents an enduring political obstacle for the broader and more liberal reforms being considered by the Senate.

"All I hear from my constituents is to keep at it," said Jim Sensenbrenner of Menomonee Falls, who crafted the House bill. He has become a lightning rod for opponents, but his position seems secure back home. He represents the most Republican and conservative district in the state.

Sensenbrenner said he has not been asked by the White House or House leaders to soften his stand on immigration, and he contends that the House Republican caucus remains behind his bill.

His fellow Wisconsin Republicans - Ryan, Green Bay's Mark Green and Fond du Lac's Tom Petri - voted with him last year.

But Ryan has a significantly different position. He voiced reservations about Sensenbrenner's measure at the time he voted for it, and he advocates much broader reforms that include a path to "earned" citizenship for many of those now in the country illegally.

"You can't ignore the 11 million illegals in this country. You've got to come up with a way to respect the rule of law and get them into the system," said Ryan, who supports plans in the Senate to give illegal immigrants a path to citizenship if they remain employed, pay fines and back taxes, learn English, and meet other tests.

Ryan said that approach is not "amnesty."

"There are people who will call anything that attempts to fix the document status of illegals amnesty," he said.

But Ryan acknowledges that his constituents require a lot of persuading on that point.

"I think the vast majority of my constituents side with the House legislation and are against what the Senate was trying to do," Ryan said.

Ryan's support for a broader bill with citizenship provisions places him more in sync with President Bush on immigration. But fellow Republicans Green and Petri stand closer to Sensenbrenner's position.

Breaking party lines
Second District Rep. Tammy Baldwin, a Madison Democrat, said the comments she hears at local meetings "defy partisanship," with liberal and conservative constituents all over the map on the issue. She said everyone seems to support tougher border security. But after that, "the agreement stops," she said.

Baldwin and the state's three other House Democrats opposed Sensenbrenner's bill.

In an interview Friday, Green said he could support a temporary worker program and wants to bring illegal immigrants "out of the shadows," an argument frequently made by those who support earned citizenship.

But Green said he opposes the proposals for earned citizenship that have drawn support in the Senate, saying they reward people for coming here illegally.

"I'm not sure exactly what it has to look like," Green, the son of immigrants, said of a program to deal with the illegal immigrants already here.

"You cannot move them to the front of line (for legalization)," said Green, the Republican candidate for Wisconsin governor. "They should have to go back. . . . If they're going to apply for citizenship, I think they should have to in some way leave their current status."

Criminal action
One of the House bill's most controversial provisions is one that makes illegal presence in the country a felony. Sensenbrenner and GOP House leaders have said they will reduce that to a misdemeanor. That would still criminalize unlawful presence, which by itself is now only a civil violation.

In another difference with his Wisconsin GOP colleagues, Ryan said he thinks that's a bad idea. "I don't think criminalization is productive," he said.

Sensenbrenner, Petri and Green all support the misdemeanor criminal penalty.

"Do I think it should it be a criminal offense? Yes," said Petri, who said he also agrees with Sensenbrenner that Congress should act to secure the border and crack down on the hiring of illegal immigrants before it considers plans to give undocumented workers legal status.

"I don't think we should do any of that until we gain control of borders because it will just encourage more people to come illegally," he added.

Petri said the issue has been a hot one in his district during the recess. He said he was even asked about it by North Fond du Lac grade-schoolers.

In a national Gallup Poll released last week, about one in five adults called immigration the country's most important problem, placing it behind only Iraq.

Church groups raise worries
Most of the organized activity in the state has been against the House measure. That includes not only demonstrations by mostly Hispanic immigrants, but also lobbying and advocacy by church and business groups.

Four of the state's seven Evangelical Lutheran Church in America bishops signed a letter criticizing the House bill and calling for legal status for the illegal immigrants already here. Bishop Paul Stumme-Diers of the church's Greater Milwaukee Synod, which claims 95,000 members, has spoken at rallies in Washington, D.C., and Milwaukee and personally questioned Sensenbrenner on the issue at a town meeting the lawmaker held last month.

The Catholic Church also has been active. Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan criticized Sensenbrenner's bill in a recent opinion piece in the Journal Sentinel. And last week, Sensenbrenner met with two representatives of the Milwaukee Archdiocese: Rob Shelledy of Catholic Social Action and Father Rafael Rodriguez, a Venezuelan priest serving in Waukesha County who got assistance from Sensenbrenner last year with visa problems.

"We realize that Congressman Sensenbrenner is a key legislator on this. He has reached out to Archbishop Dolan in particular and also to the Catholic bishops to explain his position," said Shelledy, acknowledging disagreements. "If a bill passes the Senate, Sensenbrenner will be on the conference committee, and we're looking forward to working with him on that."

One issue that came up in their meeting: provisions in the bill that church officials fear would criminalize the assistance they provide to illegal immigrants. Sensenbrenner told officials that would never happen and said critics have distorted the issue, which he calls an "urban myth."

"We certainly appreciate" Sensenbrenner's position, Shelledy said, but "there's still some concern" about the language. He said Sensenbrenner offered to clarify the language, if necessary.

Penalties concern businesses
Among business groups, the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation and the Wisconsin Restaurant Association have lobbied for a guest worker program and against the House bill's stiff penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants.

The restaurant group also supports a "path to citizenship" for illegal immigrants, said group CEO Ed Lump.

"We're a growth industry," Lump said. "We need labor. You can't run a restaurant without workers. It gets more and more difficult to hire them."

"Jim Sensenbrenner is a good friend of our industry, but we don't agree on this issue," he said.

The Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation also has expressed its opposition to parts of the House bill, chiefly the employer sanctions. Wisconsin is 12th in the nation in the number of hired farm laborers, said Tom Thieding, the federation's public relations director.

"We weren't real successful in him understanding the issues farmers were facing," he said of Sensenbrenner.

In a meeting with him last year on immigration reform, Sensenbrenner was "just going on about how this was going to be his legacy," Thieding said.

In an interview Friday, Sensenbrenner said he is proud of the House bill. "Immigration is a pressing national issue. I brought it to Congress and got a bill passed," he said.

Now, "the Senate's got to pass a bill. . . . I'm waiting."