McCain, Kyl want hearings on draft 'amnesty' memo

Arizona's Republican Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl want hearings into a controversial Homeland Security Department internal draft memo detailing potential non-legislative alternatives to comprehensive immigration reform, including an option to defer action on removing many illegal immigrants from the country.

Since the memo from the Homeland Security Department's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services surfaced late last week, Republicans have raised concerns that President Barack Obama's administration is trying to circumvent Congress and is looking for ways to grant administrative "amnesty" to illegal immigrants with lawmakers' approval.

McCain and Kyl on Monday made their requests in separate letters to two different Senate committees. McCain and 11 colleagues wrote to Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Kyl and fellow GOP members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over immigration and naturalization issues, made their request to their chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

"We are very concerned about the options outlined in the memo and are troubled that the executive branch could be engaged in an effort to inappropriately expand its authority to ensure illegal immigrants are not removed from the United States and are given access to various immigration benefits, including potential green card status," Kyl and the other Judiciary Committee Republicans wrote. "The options outlined in the memo, according to the authors, 'have the potential to result in meaningful immigration reform absent legislative action.' We, therefore, believe that the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the authors or the internal memo should appear before the Judiciary Committee to explain the document and its purpose."

The McCain letter adds: “We fully understand that the memo was a draft and not intended for public viewing; however it raises serious concerns about the Administration’s ongoing attempts to bypass Congress and the legislative process in order to pursue its own political objectives."

An administration official last week stressed to The Arizona Republic that the draft memo did not represent official policy and the controversial "deferred action" idea is not under active consideration. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs flatly told Fox News that "The White House doesn't support amnesty. ... This administration believes that the only way to deal with immigration is to do it comprehensively, to do it through Congress, with Democrats and Republicans working together."

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Monday, August 2, 2010 at 06:46 PM

http://www.azcentral.com/news/Blog/azdc/91798