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June 23, 2007, 12:26AM
Senate to take up tougher immigration measure
Plan includes jail for those who overstay visas


By MICHELLE MITTELSTADT
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

UP FOR CONSIDERATION

The proposed change to the Senate immigration bill:
• Require jail time for foreigners who stay past the expiration of their visas

• Require that foreigners who visit relatives in the U.S. post $2,500 bonds that they would forfeit if they don't leave on time

• Bar would-be temporary workers who pose health or safety risks

• Add 10,000 immigration investigators

• Eliminate a proposal that the government grant illegal immigrants a probationary visa if criminal background checks on them are not completed within 24 hours

Source: Amendment by Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Jon Kyl of Arizona.

WASHINGTON — The Senate next week will consider tougher immigration enforcement measures — including mandatory jail time for foreigners who overstay their visas — to gain more conservative support for a major immigration overhaul.

The enforcement package, endorsed by architects of the bipartisan compromise on immigration policy, is part of a sweeping immigration bill that faces an uncertain future when it returns to the Senate floor Tuesday.

Crafted by Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Jon Kyl of Arizona, the new crackdown proposal also would require that foreigners who visit relatives in the U.S. post $2,500 bonds that they would forfeit if they don't leave on time.

It also would bar foreigners who pose health or safety risks from being admitted as temporary workers; add 10,000 immigration investigators and eliminate a proposal that the government grant illegal immigrants a probationary visa if criminal background checks on them are not completed within 24 hours.

Incorporating a concept advanced by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, the Graham-Kyl amendment also would require illegal immigrants to return home temporarily within two years of receiving a probationary work visa if they are the head of the household.

The Senate also will vote on a Hutchison amendment requiring all work-eligible adults — not just heads of household — to return home first.

Kyl said he and his allies realized the compromise legislation did not go far enough in cracking down on foreigners who overstay their work, student or tourist visas.

Overstayers, seldom apprehended unless in connection with another violation, account for more than 40 percent of the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.

Some of the hijackers who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks had entered the U.S. legally and stayed beyond the approved length of time.

"We didn't think the bill did enough to ensure in the future (that) visa overstayers are going to be dealt with just as severely as people who come across the border illegally," Kyl said Friday.

While Kyl said he hoped the enforcement measure would mollify critics, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, was unimpressed.

"It doesn't increase my confidence when I haven't seen the amendments," said Cornyn, expressing frustration that reporters were briefed on the Graham-Kyl amendment's details before it was circulated to senators.

The Texan has sharply criticized the leadership's decision to permit votes on only two dozen amendments next week from a list of more than 300. Cornyn has complained about what he called the "closed process" by which a select group of senators decided which amendments to permit.

But Kyl rejected complaints that the bill was negotiated with little input from senators other than the so-called "grand bargainers."

"Anybody that wanted to be involved could be involved," Kyl said.

"And some of our biggest critics now, in fact, were involved for quite a long period of time before they chose not to be involved."


Key Democratic support
Cornyn participated in many of the bargainers' early sessions but withdrew, he said, after "it was clear the enforcement concerns I had were not being taken seriously."

The Graham-Kyl amendment has the support of key Democratic negotiators, including Sens. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts and Ken Salazar of Colorado, Kyl said. But Democrats outside the negotiating circle made no rush to embrace the proposal.

"We do not want to return to anything like Jim Sensenbrenner's view of the world," said Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill., referring to the Wisconsin Republican who authored the immigration enforcement-only bill that passed the House in December 2005 and sparked widespread protests across the U.S.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4914118.html