Thread: DeLay must bridge gap with Bush

www.thehill.com

September 20, 2005


DeLay must bridge gap with Bush
By Patrick O'Connor


The White House outlined a comprehensive immigration overhaul during a meeting last week with congressional Republicans, creating a potential conflict between the administration and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), who favors an incremental approach to reform.

The comprehensive package would increase enforcement on the border, create new workplace requirements for employers and expand guest-worker programs inside and outside the United States, said Reps. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.), who met last week with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and other senior administration officials.

Flake said the administration “insists on comprehensive reform,� putting the president at odds with DeLay and those congressional Republicans who would rather change the current immigration code one law at a time. As recently as last week, DeLay said he would prefer passing a bill to increase border security before taking up legislation to address workplace enforcement or the current guest-worker program.

In the House, GOP leaders must try to find legislative language agreeable to those members advocating stronger border protections and those members pushing for an expansion of the country’s guest-worker program, although there is considerable overlap.

“We’re closer than people think,� Flake said of the distance between competing factions within the Republican Conference. “The gulf is not as wide as people assume.�

The guest-worker provisions in the White House package would require illegal immigrants employed in the United States to register with the federal government as part of a national database for employers of all sizes. Those workers would then be allowed to stay in the country for an intermediate phase as long as they remained employed.

Flake and Kolbe included a similar provision in the comprehensive immigration bill they co-wrote with Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) and Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.). Their bill would allow these workers to register for two successive three-year terms, during which they would have temporary guest-worker status and could apply for permanent residency.

In contrast, the administration plan would require these workers to return to their countries of origin after the intermediate work phase to register for permanent residency, Kolbe said.

In the Senate, John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) have introduced a bill that would require illegal immigrants employed in the United States to return to their countries of origin before applying for permanent residency or guest-worker status.

Similar legislation is expected in the House, where Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), whose committee will mark up the eventual legislation, told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel last week that he expected Hurricane Katrina to postpone any bill overhauling the country’s immigration policy until next year.

Neither Flake nor Kolbe would give any details about when the administration would want to see Congress pass an immigration measure, but both members said they were confident the House could tackle legislation this year.

During a Republican Conference meeting the last week in July, President Bush told members that he wanted Congress to address immigration reform “next fall,� prompting one member to shout: “We can’t wait until next fall.�

Bush then clarified his remarks to say he meant this fall, Flake said.

Immigration continues to be a particularly controversial issue for congressional Republicans. Flake and Kolbe both faced primary opponents last year who attacked them for advocating an expanded guest-worker program. Kolbe’s challenger, state Rep. Randy Graf, has again made immigration the cornerstone of his campaign to unseat the senior member of the Arizona delegation. Graf won 43 percent of the Republican vote during last year’s primary. His website features a Ronald Reagan quote about immigration: “A nation without borders is not a nation.�

Flake argues that comprehensive changes to immigration policy are the best way to handle this issue politically because such a strategy would address concerns from every side of the political spectrum.

“If it’s comprehensive reform … then that covers the basics for all of us, no matter what districts we’re from,� Flake said. In contrast, passing one component at a time would be a “recipe for disaster,� he said.

A coalition of labor unions, civil-rights organizations and religious groups, including the newly independent Service Employees International Union, has scheduled a series of rallies beginning today at Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington in support of the Flake-Kolbe bill.

comprehensive reform

Everybody is all about immigration reform. We're all for immigration reform these guys say. But the OBL politicans use this phrase to try to sell their open borders amnesty snake oil to the American people. They don't get it and they never will. They all need to be removed from office in 2006.