Thread: Lawmakers to hold dueling hearings on immigration

http://www.kristv.com/global/story.asp? ... =Printable
<<Back


Lawmakers to hold dueling hearings on immigration

WASHINGTON -- A key Republican backer of the Senate's sweeping immigration bill threw a counterpunch at House leaders Wednesday, saying he will hold hearings as soon as July 5 to ensure all issues are fully aired, including whether people in the country illegally should be made felons.


Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., announced the hearings in response to House Speaker Dennis Hastert's Tuesday announcement that GOP House members would hold an unusual series of summer hearings around the nation on the Senate's immigration bill.

Specter said his first hearing will be in Pennsylvania and farmers, landscapers and others would be invited.

"Since the House is making a point of having hearings, we can too," said Specter, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman.

"House members have said repeatedly the Senate is out of touch with what America wants ... let's have hearings on the Senate provisions and I think when it's more fully understood Americans will want that," he said.

The dueling hearings around the country will take on the road the infighting over immigration ongoing among Republicans and between the House and Senate, which has led to several stops-and-starts in trying to get a bill to President Bush.

Bush has essentially backed the Senate's comprehensive approach and its path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

The Senate's bill also creates a guest worker program for future legal workers and provides enforcement and contains border security measures. The House passed a bill in December that subjects all illegal immigrants in the country to felony prosecution, stiffens penalties for employers of illegal workers and steps up border security.

The usual next step would be for House and Senate members to negotiate a compromise bill in conference committee.

But opponents, largely conservatives, have balked at the negotiations as the Senate bill has been seen by some as a political loser in re-election campaigns.

Specter said he wants to go beyond the House focus on enforcement and establish evidence in his hearings that "guest workers are indispensable for our economy" as well as discuss the cost of "creating a fugitive class of 11 million undocumented immigrants."

"They are marked felons under the House bill. And what are you going to do with them? You going to round them up? You going to push them into hiding?" Specter told reporters. "My thinking is they can't be ignored."

The House's felony provision trigged massive street protests in April and a boycott in May with hundreds of thousands of immigrants _ legal and illegal _ and their supporters. News of the hearings had some of the grass-roots groups that organized the marches huddling once again Wednesday.

"If they want to declare war on us we are going to do what we have to do to respond adequately," said Juan Jose Gutierrez, leader of the International May 1 Coalition, whose members helped organize a Los Angeles march that drew 500,000 protesters and an economic boycott on May 1.

Already, numerous immigrant groups have planned what they've dubbed Democracy Summer. They plan to hold citizenship workshops to help legal immigrants become citizens, register eligible voters and hold workshops to teach people their rights and more about the immigration debate.

"I think the community has been paying very, very close attention and I think they are going to be seeing this action for what it is. It's not an effort to get more information through hearings. It's an effort to gin up anti-immigrant backlash," said Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union.

He said the House can expect immigrants and their advocates to show up at the hearings.

Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.







All content © Copyright 2002 - 2006 WorldNow and KRIS. All Rights Reserved.
For more information on this site, please read our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

I'm curious if the "average American" will even be able to get in to have a say.

ROFLMAO Look at the S-Storm we caused in DC!!!!!!

Specter said his first hearing will be in Pennsylvania and farmers, landscapers and others would be invited.

Specter is going to pick and choose his cronies!

Dixie

Specter is going to pick and choose his cronies!

That's what I think too.......and make it sound like that's the way all Americans feel.

Here we go again.........they insist on labeling those of us that love our country and respect the Rule of Law - ANTI-IMMIGRANT How long do they think they can run with that one?

Let's see now, "undocumented" is barely mentioned now as that's been run into the ground and didn't get any traction.
Then the "racist" label is slowly being sucked into the drain of all that is old & worn out. That's not holding much water anymore. How long will it take to call them on the "anti-immigrant" crap?

"I think the community has been paying very, very close attention and I think they are going to be seeing this action for what it is. It's not an effort to get more information through hearings. It's an effort to gin up anti-immigrant backlash," said Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union.

What this article fails to mention is the most outrageous parts of the bill by the senate that go along with the amnesty. The amnesty for the employers, the SS the illegals can get, not having the pay back taxes except for 2 years, etc.

Originally Posted by dlm1968

What this article fails to mention is the most outrageous parts of the bill by the senate that go along with the amnesty. The amnesty for the employers, the SS the illegals can get, not having the pay back taxes except for 2 years, etc.

Also ** no penalty/punishment for Fraudulent use of IDs & ID Theft **