Immigration Reform: The Sequel to the Sequel

Posted by Mary Orndorff September 17, 2007 2:41 PM
Categories: For the record

I had a short story about this last week and now there are signs this could be a major issue this week on Capitol Hill. And we know what that means: Sen. Jeff Sessions, front and center.

The Alabama Republican has a special high gear for this issue and he shifted into it for what is known as a "pen and pad" briefing with reporters inside the Senate Press Gallery in the Capitol. When the p.a. system announced that Sessions was sitting down to talk about immigration reform, print reporters swarmed in and huddled around. (Pen and pad means it's on the record but no television cameras -- much less formal than a full-on press conference.)

Anyway, it was clear that Sessions and his staff had been crunching numbers and are armed for a fight over proposals that would give more than 1.5 million people a chance to go from undocumented to legal citizen. I asked if it was the number that bothered him, and if a smaller number would be more acceptable. Here was his answer:

"I don't think we need to reward those who've broken the law and entered unlawfully with a guaranteed path to citizenship over those who have been waiting in line to apply. This would violate the principle."

Despite Sessions' assurances that he understands the needs of agriculture to have a stable and adequate workforce, this statement doesn't exactly portend compromise.

http://blog.al.com/sweethome/2007/09/im ... equel.html