Thread: Senate Panel Vote Splits GOP on Immigration

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Border Discord
Senate Panel Vote Splits GOP On Immigration
March 28, 2006

Combined Wire Services WASHINGTON -- A major confrontation between Republican leaders in Congress now appears inevitable after a key Senate panel broke with the House's get-tough approach to illegal immigration Monday.

With bipartisan support, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 12-6 to side with President Bush's general approach to an immigration issue that is dividing the country.

The panel sent to the floor a sweeping overhaul of the nation's immigration laws that would provide lawful employment to millions of illegal immigrants while offering work visas to hundreds of thousands of new immigrants every year.

The issue is ripening into one of the biggest political debates of this election year. Conservatives have loudly demanded that the government tighten control of its borders and begin deporting illegal immigrants. But in recent weeks, the immigrant community has risen up in protest, marching by the hundreds of thousands to denounce what they see as draconian measures under consideration in Washington.

"There is no issue outside of civil rights that brings out the kind of emotions we have seen," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., one of the bill's primary authors, who called the controversy "a defining issue of our times."

If the measure is approved by the full Senate, it would set both Republican-led chambers on course for a major collision when they meet to reconcile their differences.

"We are eager, once the Senate passes this bill, to sit down and talk with them, but there are certain fundamental principles which we simply cannot compromise on," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who co-authored the bill that passed the Judiciary Committee largely intact Monday. "It has to be a comprehensive approach. As we all know, just building walls and hiring more border patrols are not the answers to our immigration problem."

But the House contends immigration enforcement must be beefed up at the border and in the country's interior before contemplating guest work plans or legalization, and that is reflected in the bill it passed in December.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, the Colorado Republican who is leading a faction of House enforcement hawks, denounced the Judiciary Committee's action.

"If the Senate follows the Judiciary Committee's lead, the prospects of getting a reform bill to the president's desk this year are slim, to say the least," he said. "No plan with amnesty and a massive increase in foreign workers will pass the House."

But advocates of the Senate's approach contend that if Bush weighs in strongly, the House may back down. Appearing Monday at a citizenship ceremony for 30 new Americans, Bush renewed his call for a comprehensive immigration overhaul.

"Completing a comprehensive bill is not going to be easy," Bush said. "It will require all of us in Washington to make tough choices and make compromises. And that is exactly what the American people sent us here to do."

Advocates for a more lenient immigration policy hailed the Senate panel's measure.

"It's clear the backlash of the House bill has had a major effect," said Kevin Appleby, director of the U.S. Catholic Conference's Office of Migration and Refugee Policy. "It's a whole new ballgame."

Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., rushed committee members to complete their work to meet a midnight deadline imposed by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who favors a tougher approach more in line with the version passed by the House. But once the committee had acted, Frist refused to say Monday night whether he would substitute the committee's legislation for his own, which includes no guest worker program.

Specter had tried for weeks to find a middle ground between senators advocating a generous guest-worker program and those categorically rejecting amnesty for illegal immigrants. In the end, that search for a compromise failed because advocates of the guest-worker program had more than enough votes to overcome conservative opposition.

The panel voted to accept a bill largely patterned on the measure authored by Kennedy and McCain. Specter and Republican Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), Sam Brownback (Kan.) and Mike DeWine (Ohio) joined committee Democrats to win passage.

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., was among those voting against. "It is not fair to those who have been playing by the rules," he said.

The biggest problem with immigration reform is that the naturalization process is symptomatic of every other government sponsored program. It is weighed down by red tape, bureaucracy, and people who don't care what they do during the course of the day because they won't get fired.

I talked with an immigrant from the Czech Republic recently who conveyed some of the nightmares he went through to obtain citizenship. They lose the paperwork and you have to start from scratch, if you look at them the wrong way or breathe a little too heavily in the course of conversation you get sent to the back of the line. It's just like any other government agency: run by deadbeats.

The first step to reforming immigration in this country, after a wall and deportation upon arrest, is making sure that people who work in governmental agencies can get fired. We'll see how fast things change after that!