Thread: House passes border security bills

http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=5441251

House passes border security bills

WASHINGTON -- Republicans took a new crack at old border-security legislation Thursday as the House approved pre-election bills on deporting gang members, imprisoning tunnelers and empowering local police to arrest illegal immigrants.

With no prospects this year for passing broader immigration changes favored by the Senate, House GOP leaders said taking action to seal the border was a matter of urgency.

"We're running out of time in this Congress," said Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. "The American people say border security first."

But Sensenbrenner's Republican counterpart in the Senate, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, said, "I don't see how we can deal with the immigration issue on a piecemeal basis." There would be no motivation for the House to negotiate on the issue "if we take care of all of their priorities and none of the Senate's," he said.

The House passed legislation last December that concentrated on border security and enforcement of laws banning employment of undocumented workers. The Senate in May passed a broader bill, generally endorsed by President Bush, that included provisions for a guest worker program and ways for the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants to work toward legal status and eventual citizenship.

There's been no progress in efforts to reconcile the two bills.

The three border security bills the House took up Thursday were in large part already included in the bill passed last December.

House leaders said one plan was to try to attach the bills to Homeland Security spending legislation that Congress must clear before the end of the session, an approach that Specter, also a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, appeared to dismiss.

The Senate, meanwhile, was debating legislation passed by the House last week that would approve construction of a 700-mile fence stretching across one-third of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Democrats said Thursday's votes were an attempt to cover up the failure to pass more comprehensive immigration changes.

"It's political gamesmanship that forecasts an election" less than two months away, said Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.

Congressional Democratic leaders, seeking to capitalize on Hispanic opposition to the get-tough policy on illegal immigrants, on Thursday unveiled plans to enact immigration changes and improve education and health care for Hispanic families. "For too long this do-nothing Republican Congress has ignored, and in some cases worsened, the critical challenges facing Latinos," said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid.

The three House bills would:

_Impose prison terms of up to 20 years for those who knowingly construct or finance an unauthorized tunnel under a U.S. border. People who permit the construction of such a tunnel could face 10 years in prison. Sensenbrenner said 50 tunnels, used to smuggle narcotics and illegal immigrants, have been discovered along the Mexican border since 1990, and 36 in the last five years. It passed 422-0.

_Allow the Department of Homeland Security to hold illegal immigrants detained for crimes or as threats to national security beyond the current limit of six months, and set up expedited procedures for deporting these people. The bill also would make it easier to detain and deport illegal immigrants found to be part of criminal street gangs. It passed 328-95.

The National Immigration Forum voiced opposition to the provision, saying it "gives the attorney general the ability to designate any group as a gang and then punish an individual for belonging to that group, regardless of whether the individual committed a crime."

_Reaffirm the authority of state and local law enforcement to arrest, detain and transfer to federal custody illegal immigrants. It would ask the Justice Department to increase the number of attorneys prosecuting immigrant smuggling cases. It also would close loopholes that have led to "catch and release" policies in which illegal immigrants, mainly non-Mexicans, are released because they cannot be immediately deported. It passed 277-140.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 00965.html

House acts on border security measures

By Donna Smith
Reuters
Thursday, September 21, 2006; 5:07 PM



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Unable to agree on comprehensive immigration legislation sought by President George W. Bush, the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday unanimously approved a bill making it a crime to build an unauthorized tunnel across the U.S. border.

The bill was one of three border security measures approved by the House on Thursday to crack down on smuggling and illegal immigrants who commit crimes or are gang members.

The House, on a 277-140 vote, also passed a measure affirming the authority of state and local governments to enforce federal immigration laws.

That measure would also end an exemption for Salvadorans from expedited removal proceedings.

A third bill, approved by a vote of 328-95, would allow U.S. authorities to detain dangerous illegal immigrants beyond six months if they cannot otherwise be deported and speed up deportation of criminal immigrants. It also toughens laws against illegal immigrants who are gang members.

With congressional elections looming in November, the bills are part of an effort by House Republicans to push through elements of a House-passed immigration bill that focused on border security and workplace enforcement.

House Republicans were unable to compromise on that bill with the Senate, which passed a broader immigration bill that creates a guest worker program backed by President Bush.

Democrats who back broader legislation say the piecemeal approach is politically motivated so the Republican-led Congress can avoid a "do nothing" label and claim credit for action before the November 7 elections, when Democrats hope to capitalize on voter unrest and make big gains.

Some Republicans also do not like the piecemeal approach.

'PIECEMEAL' APPROACH

"I don't see how we can deal with the immigration issue on a piecemeal basis," said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican.

Bush has been pushing for comprehensive legislation that would combine tighter controls at the border and employer enforcement measures with a plan to create a guest worker program that would legalize millions of illegal immigrants.

Republicans are deeply divided over Bush's plan, and Ohio Republican Rep. Deborah Pryce criticized lawmakers who want to wait for agreement on comprehensive legislation.

"Those who would hold out for a broader, a more perfect, a more comprehensive bill must be those who have not been to the border to see the chaos and disruption," Pryce said at a news conference.

Specter told reporters House Republicans would have no incentive to work out differences with the Senate on a comprehensive immigration overhaul if senators go along with the piecemeal approach.

"We have to take care of a guest worker program, we have to take care of employer verification, we have to take care of 11 million undocumented workers," Specter said.

The House last week passed a bill authorizing the construction of about 700 miles of fence along parts of the 2,000-mile U.S. border with Mexico. The Senate could vote on the measure next week.

The House on Wednesday passed a bill that would require voters to show proof of U.S. citizenship in order to vote in federal elections. That bill faces stiff opposition by Democrats and appears unlikely to pass the Senate.

(additional reporting by Thomas Ferraro)

"We have to take care of a guest worker program, we have to take care of employer verification, we have to take care of 11 million undocumented workers," Specter said.

You are so right benedict arlen, and here's how we take care of the 11 (more like 20-25 million) million illegals, SEND THEIR ILLEGAL ASS HOME NOW!!! That's how we deal with them you stinking traitor.

This is a big show, to get us to vote for them.