Thread: Clock may run out for compromise

http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_4115889

Article Launched: 7/31/2006 01:00 AM

nation | world
Clock may run out for compromise

By Anne C. Mulkern
Denver Post Staff Writer
DenverPost.com

Washington - Despite months of heated debate and protests across the country, Congress is effectively killing any chance to rewrite immigration laws this year, many close to the issue say.

With only about a dozen days left on Congress' calendar, U.S. House leaders have no plans to negotiate with the Senate on an immigration-reform bill.

Instead, they've scheduled 21 field hearings on the issue in 13 states during the August recess that started Friday. Critics call the hearings and those held earlier in the summer a stalling tactic.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., will chair one of the hearings, none of which is planned for his home state.

"House leadership has effectively called immigration legislation dead for the year," said Will Adams, spokesman for Tancredo, a leading immigration hard- liner.

Even so, House Republicans see immigration and border security as issues they can use to boost turnout at elections in November.

U.S. House leaders last week asked Republicans to push immigration in front of voters during the recess, emphasizing that the GOP is tougher than Democrats on border security. They offered to coach Republican lawmakers on how to plan immigration-focused events in their districts.

"It's a big concern for the American people," said Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, the House majority leader. "The American people appreciate the position that House Republicans have taken. I think we're on the right side of the issue."

He conceded that time may be up for action on immigration this year.

"A good bill whenever we get it is better than a bad bill," Boehner said.

Lawmakers remain deeply divided over how to deal with immigration.

In the Senate, 23 of 55 Republicans joined Democrats in voting for a bill that creates a guest- worker program and a path to citizenship for illegal migrants.

Many Republicans consider those provisions "amnesty," and instead back the House-passed bill, which toughens penalties for illegal immigration and beefs up border security but contains no guest-worker and citizenship plans.

U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., worked on the coalition that helped pass the Senate bill.

"I'm saddened by the fact that people would allow politics to transcend the substance of the issue," he said. "The more time that passes that we have a system of illegality essentially sanctioned as our national system ... it makes a mockery of our immigration system."

New legislation sponsored by Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, surfaced last week, attempting to bridge differences on immigration. It would allow an immigrant-citizenship process only after stiff border-security goals are met.

Some lawmakers called the proposal "good for discussion." But there's little time left for discussion, said Norman Ornstein, political analyst with the American Enterprise Institute. Republicans on both sides of the immigration divide find parts of the new bill objectionable, he said.

President Bush continues pushing for reform that includes border security, a guest-worker program and recognition of the nation's illegal immigrants, an agenda closer to the Senate bill. Bush administration officials so far plan to speak at two of the upcoming field hearings.

"We've said all along that it's (Congress') prerogative to have hearings," said White House spokesman Blair Jones. "We're encouraged by recent efforts in the House and Senate, such as the Pence-Hutchison bill, to move this bill forward."

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a sponsor of the Senate-passed immigration bill, said Republicans are likely to be hurt by how they've behaved on the immigration issue.

"It's not in our best interest to go into the election in November having done nothing," McCain said. "We haven't passed anything. The perception of the American people is we have not done enough."

Despite the intensity of the immigration debate in recent months, whether the issue will real ly play a major role in the election isn't clear, said several analysts. The Iraq war and the economy are likely to be bigger motivating factors for voters, they say.

Immigration reform is both a short- and long-term political issue for Republicans, said Amy Walter, U.S. House analyst with the Cook Political Report.

Looking to the 2008 election and beyond, some Republicans worry "if (they) are portrayed as anti-immigrant, anti-Hispanic, that label is going to stick with (them) for years," Walter said. The fear is that they "can't afford to lose that fast-growing segment of voters."

But for some lawmakers in border states, or who represent conservative districts, the short-term concern is greater.

A few lawmakers said there's a possibility the House and Senate bills could be merged either in September or if Congress comes back after the election for a lame-duck session. At that point, there would be less risk for lawmakers who make concessions.

"In September, there'll be a different view. Certainly after the election, there'll be a different view," said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee, which produced the Senate's immigration bill. "I believe there's still a realistic likelihood of a bill."

http://www.masslive.com

Immigration hearings staged to run out clock
Monday, July 31, 2006


When Republican members of Congress who are back in their home districts during next month's recess are asked what they are doing about immigration, they'll have an answer close at hand: We're talking about it.

And talking about it. And talking about it.

Republican House members are staging 21 hearings in 13 states in an effort, they say, to get a better handle on what the citizens are thinking about illegal immigration and border control. When the hearings and the recess have concluded, they'll then sit down with their Senate counterparts to try to find enough common ground on immigration reform to get a bill passed and to the president later this year.

There might be someone who actually believes that's going to happen. But there can't be very many people who think that all the talk about talk is anything more than, well, talk.

There are about 100 days left until the mid-term elections. With that fact clearly in their minds, Republican lawmakers in the House have concluded that doing nothing about immigration is preferable to making changes that are bound to displease some people.

But they obviously cannot admit that they'd just as soon kick immigration down the road past Election Day. So they're going to be doing a whole lot of talking about getting something done - and soon.

And with any luck, they'll run out the clock without most voters noticing that what they've been working hardest to do is nothing at all.

There are, by most estimates, some 12 million people currently in the United States illegally. No plan for immigration reform can go anywhere without acknowledging that fact. A practical plan can - and must - also deal with increasing border control. The Senate and President Bush have backed proposals that face reality. We'd have hoped that the House would have done the same, but the GOP leadership - from Speaker J. Dennis Hastert on down - would rather talk the issue to death.

At least until after the election.

When they tell their constituents next month that they are talking about immigration reform, what they'll be saying, of course, is that they don't want to upset anyone before Election Day. We trust that people will see through those words to the truth.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a sponsor of the Senate-passed immigration bill, said Republicans are likely to be hurt by how they've behaved on the immigration issue.

"It's not in our best interest to go into the election in November having done nothing," McCain said. "We haven't passed anything. The perception of the American people is we have not done enough."

I hope he was looking in a mirror, when he made that statement.