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June 15, 2005

GOP seeks to heal rift on migrants
By Patrick O'Connor

House Republican leaders are trying to bridge a deep divide on immigration reform before they schedule a vote on the controversial issue later this year.

To that end, Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, will soon begin hosting dinners for small groups of Republican Conference members to discuss immigration as the House Judiciary Committee crafts its bill.

Shadegg is modeling these meals on the Unity Dinners that were first arranged by then-Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) during the early years of the so-called Republican Revolution. Armey created the dinners as a way to build agreement between conference members who were on different sides of a divisive issue.

“The goal will be to achieve consensus,� Shadegg told The Hill yesterday. “It’s a complex issue.�

Immigration reform was the subject of a lengthy conversation during the whip meeting Monday night, according to GOP staff members with knowledge of the meeting. The members, led by Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Chief Deputy Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.), discussed both the need to act on immigration reform and a few of the different reform ideas.

Immigration reform is particularly thorny for congressional Republicans because it divides members who back the increased enforcement of current immigration laws and supporters of agriculture, construction and the service industry who favor a broader guest-worker program. Supporters of an expanded guest-worker program include President Bush and powerful business interests such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Last week, Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) told a group of Hispanic reporters that the House would vote on an immigration-reform bill before the end of the year. At the briefing, he said Shadegg would be responsible for coordinating the internal debate.

Shadegg plans to hold the first of these dinners before the July 4 recess. He will then host another dinner every week or two until a bill is introduced in the House Judiciary Committee. In the beginning, Shadegg said, he will invite “a dozen or so� members on every side of the issue to discuss their preferences for reform. No outside interest groups will be included.

Hastert has already committed to attending at least one of the dinners, Shadegg said, and Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) is expected to attend most of the others. In addition, the Policy Committee will work closely with Judiciary staff in shaping the debate during the dinners so that members will discuss the issues most relevant to Sensenbrenner and his committee advisers.

“Our goal is to assist Mr. Sensenbrenner,� Shadegg said. “The Judiciary Committee will be charged with writing this bill. We’ll talk closely.�

Shadegg has already divided the issue into four broad topics: border enforcement, interior enforcement, employer enforcement and the question about what to do with workers who are already in this country. But he was quick to point out that this initial list is in no way binding.

“It’s going to be an open process,� Shadegg said.

The dinners are not meant to be organized debates. “People come to these things with firm views,� Shadegg said. Instead, the goal is to find common ground among the conference’s many disparate viewpoints.

Sensenbrenner has already been working on immigration reform, and yesterday his committee announced that it will hold a hearing next Tuesday on the issue of workplace enforcement and employer sanctions. The hearing will address some of the enforcement shortfalls in the workplace and the lack of fines levied against employers of illegal immigrants.

Most of those requirements were established by the Simpson-Mazzolli Act of 1986, which instituted fines and sanctions against employers who hire illegal immigrants while also granting a one-time amnesty to illegal workers already in this country. Those laws have since become difficult to enforce as the country’s population of illegal immigrants â€â€