Gillibrand, fellow moderates caught in immigration debate

By JENNIFER A. DLOUHY, Washington bureau
First published: Sunday, March 16, 2008

WASHINGTON -- A Republican push for a new tough-on-immigration bill is putting moderate Democrats such as U.S Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-Greenport, in the hot seat.
Gillibrand, a freshman lawmaker who unseated four-term Republican John Sweeney, has signed up to co-sponsor an immigration enforcement bill sponsored by Rep. Heath Shuler, D-N.C. But she has declined to support a Republican-led move to bring the measure to an immediate floor vote.

Shuler's bill would boost the number of Border Patrol agents by 8,000 and require employers within four years to begin using a government database to verify that their workers are legal. More than 50,000 employers now voluntarily use the screening program, known as E-Verify.

Advocates of liberalized immigration laws have said that such tougher enforcement proposals should be paired with a new work visa and possibly a new path to citizenship for most of the 12 million or more illegal immigrants estimated to be living already within U.S. borders.

Republican House members are circulating a petition to allow fast House consideration of the Shuler bill even though the measure has not gone through the normal procedures of examination by several House committees.

The quick-action petition is opposed by Democratic House leaders, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California.

Gillibrand says she wants Shuler's immigration enforcement measure to go to the House floor the normal way, after being vetted by congressional committees -- not because a petition forced leaders' hands.

"Going the discharge petition route is really partisan -- I believe that approach will be counter-productive, and it will fail," Gillibrand said in an interview. "I would prefer to see the bill come to the floor through the normal committee process" which would produce "a better bill."

Gillibrand joined Rep. Baron Hill, D-Ind., and other moderate Democrats last week in writing Pelosi to praise Shuler's bill as a "no-nonsense solution to the current illegal immigration ... crisis" and urged Pelosi to move it to the floor through the normal committee process.

But their refusal to join the Republican petition drive leaves them vulnerable to attacks from hard-line foes of illegal immigration and political opponents in an election year.

T.Q. Houlton, a spokesman for Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., who wants the U.S. to crack down on illegal immigration, accused Gillibrand and other lawmakers who haven't signed the petition of double talk.

They "told their constituents one thing on the campaign trail but are doing something different in Washington," said Houlton. "They obviously aren't willing to put their money where their mouth is."

Republicans launched their petition drive last week. To succeed and force Democratic leaders to put Shuler's bill on the House floor, they would need to get the signatures of 218 lawmakers. By Friday, 169 House members had signed the petition; all but seven were Republicans.

Tom Snyder, the national political director for UNITE HERE, a textile and hotel workers' union that has supported liberalizing U.S. immigration laws, said Republicans are using the Shuler bill to lay "a political trap" for Democrats.

Timing is at the heart of the controversy.

If the Shuler bill went to House committees first, the panels would convene hearings, debate the measure and then make changes to it before sending the legislation to the full House. That process could take months.

But if the Republican petition drive succeeds and the bill is brought to the House floor on an expedited basis, Democrats would be forced to take a stand on the issue before the November elections.

They would then be in the tricky situation of either supporting the bill -- and potentially alienating Hispanic voters -- or opposing the measure -- and being portrayed as soft on illegal immigration.

Voters want Congress to deal with the issue, said Gillibrand. The lawmaker said voters in her district covering New York's capital region feel "very strongly" about illegal immigration.

After outgoing New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer proposed allowing illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses, Gillibrand said her constituents were livid.

"When the illegal immigration driver's license issue came up, it was the only thing I heard about for at least three weeks," Gillibrand said.

Gillibrand was the first Democrat in the state to oppose Spitzer's plan.

Gillibrand said she is confident her constituents know her record on immigration.

"At the end of the day, my views on illegal immigration are pretty clear," Gillibrand said. "I'm supporting the best enforcement bill that Democrats have written this session."
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