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09-12-2006, 08:25 PM #1
Thomas pushing new immigration bill
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanlui ... 502498.htm
Posted on Tue, Sep. 12, 2006
Thomas pushing new immigration bill
Focus is now on security
Jennifer Dlouhy
Hearst Newspapers
WASHINGTON – Having given up on broadly overhauling the nation’s immigration laws before Election Day, House Republicans are pushing a new plan that focuses solely on strengthening U.S. border security.
Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Calif., said Congress needs to "close the door" to illegal immigrants. Thomas's hometown is Bakersfield but his district includes the inland areas of San Luis Obispo County.
"The first thing you do is turn the faucet off, you deal with border security," said Thomas, the head of the House Ways and Means Committee. "People expect us to offer at least some solutions."
On Wednesday, Republican leaders are expected to announce details of their proposal, which is expected to include proposals to increase the number of Border Patrol agents and unmanned aerial surveillance planes along the U.S.-Mexico boundary.
The measure will be a gentler version of the get-tough immigration bill that the House passed last December – legislation that would have made it a felony for undocumented workers to be "unlawfully present" in the United States.
The new proposal won’t include any of the more liberal provisions of a broader Senate-passed bill that would have combined tougher border enforcement with a plan to give many of the nation’s estimated 12 million undocumented workers a chance to become U.S. citizens.
Republican leaders conceded last week that Congress has run out of time to pass any major bills that combine border enforcement, a plan for illegal immigrants and a new work visa for foreigners before legislators leave Washington at the end of this month to campaign for the Nov. 7 election.
Instead, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said Republican lawmakers will focus only on tougher border enforcement. Hastert said the latest effort is an attempt to "write and pass a border security package that meets our nation’s immediate need for border security and immigration enforcement."
"Such legislation should pass the House this fall, and hopefully the Senate as well," Hastert said.
Democrats belittled the new border security package as a political ploy by Republicans who want to look like they’re doing something about illegal immigration before voters head to the polls.
"It’s a way to cover up the Republicans’ failure to act by pretending to do something," said Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said the House Republicans’ new border security plan "is about the mid-term elections."
"For 12 years they’ve done nothing," Lofgren said. Now that Republicans are facing an election that could determine control of the House, Lofgren said, "they’re trying to look like they’re doing something."
During Congress’ month-long summer recess, House lawmakers held more than 20 hearings around the country designed to bolster support for their enforcement-only bill and highlight what they saw as flaws in the Senate measure.
In a roundtable Tuesday, leading House Republicans said those hearings showed that Congress needed to focus on border security before considering how to deal with undocumented workers already living in the United States.
"I came away more convinced than ever of the absolute necessity of securing our borders first," said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., who heads the House Homeland Security Committee "This is an issue that has to be addressed as quickly as possible. We need more border patrol agents, we need more technology (and) we certainly need fencing and obstructions along the border."
Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, a group of immigration advocates, said the Republican roundtable Tuesday made "clear that workable border security and immigration reform will have to wait until next year."
Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, said the summer hearings wasted time that lawmakers could have used to try and draw up a compromise between the House and Senate immigration bills.
"The hearings we endured were not about policy," Reyes said. "They were about politics."
--Jennifer A. Dlouhy can be reached at jdlouhy@hearstdc.comSupport our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at http://eepurl.com/cktGTn
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09-13-2006, 02:01 AM #2
And of course none of this would be necessary if we had an Executive Branch using its Departments to enforce existing US Immigration, US Labor, and US Civil Rights Laws.
US Justice Department prosecutes illegal employers for illegal hirings, labor and civil rights violations.
US Homeland Security secures the borders and deports illegals.
US Labor Department ensures that every worker on a payroll is an American Citizen or a Legal Alien With a Current Legal Work Visa.
A Nation Without Borders Is Not A Nation - Ronald Reagan
Save America, Deport Congress! - Judy
Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at https://eepurl.com/cktGTn
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