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Illegal immigration fight rips fissures across nation
By BOB KEMPER
Cox News Service
Thursday, March 02, 2006
WASHINGTON — With up to 11 million illegal immigrants in the country, the issue of how to deal with them is roiling statehouses more than a thousand miles from the Mexican border.

Today in Washington, as the Senate Judiciary Committee considers a set of competing bills, the issue has driven wedges not just between liberals and conservatives, but between the Republicans who control Congress. Lawmakers in the House are calling for a crackdown, while senators are seeking a middle ground between hard-line measures and President Bush's call for a guest-worker program. Even within those factions, there are divisions.

"Immigration is not a bad thing. It built this country," said Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.). "But illegal immigration is something that's really tearing the country apart right now."

There is little consensus in this election year about what action Congress may take. But the pressure to do something is growing among constituents in the nation's politically influential suburbs and exurbs — particularly in the Southeast.

There have been past efforts in Congress to stem the tide of illegal immigrants, including legislation in 1996 to ease deportation of aliens attempting to enter the United States without proper documents. But pressure for more stringent measures came mainly from border states.

Now, the issue is becoming a national one. Some Georgia congressmen represent suburban counties that have seen the Hispanic populations — including a large contingent of illegal immigrants — surge 200 to 300 percent since 1990. They say they are regularly inundated with complaints about the pressures illegal immigrants are placing on local schools, jails, hospital emergency rooms and public services.

"That issue over the three or four years has seemed to have moved higher and higher up the ladder. It's hugely important," said Rep. Phil Gingrey, a Georgia Republican elected in 2002.

About 40 governors in Washington this week for a National Governors Association meeting called on Congress and the White House to act on illegal immigration.


System 'out of control'

The growth of the issue can be seen in the makeup of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, an informal study group in the House that is calling for tighter immigration controls. Of Georgia's seven House Republicans, all are members except John Linder, who could not be reached Wednesday for comment.

The caucus, led by Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), one of Congress' most vocal critics of the immigration system, has grown from 15 members, mostly from border states, to 91, most hailing from the suburbs of Atlanta, Greensboro, N.C., Charlotte and other cities — even Indianapolis and Cincinnati — that a generation ago had few foreign-born residents.

"Clearly, the disbursement of immigration — out of the Southwest to the rest of the country, out of cities into the suburbs — is making it more politically important for a lot of people," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think-tank that favors stricter immigration controls.

"If four blocks away, on the way to work, you see 75 [day laborers] hanging around the 7-Eleven, it's like, 'What's going on here? This is something that's actually relevant to me.' That is making the issue a lot more salient to a lot more people," Krikorian said.

Deborah Meyers of the Migration Policy Institute in Washington said that the dispersion of illegal immigrants to areas unused to dealing with them is driving up voter anxiety that gives Congress a potent incentive to act.

"There's a perception — a legitimate perception — that the system is out of control," she said. "And it is out of control."


Securing border 'comes first'

But even as immigration reform is becoming a local issue for a growing number of lawmakers, they are finding that a one-size-fits-all solution is not easy to come by.

The House, with the unanimous support of Georgia's Republican delegation as well as Democrats Jim Marshall and John Barrow, passed a bill in December focused on increasing border security, including building walls along the border and requiring employers to verify the residency status of all employees.

Rep. Charlie Norwood, a Georgia Republican, is calling for 36,000 to 48,000 U.S. troops or National Guard members to be dispatched immediately to secure the border. Bush's immigration plans and many of the reform plans being weighed in Congress would take up to four years to fully implement, allowing 1 million illegal immigrants a year to enter the United States, he said.

"We are by default agreeing to allow an additional 4 million illegal aliens into our country, the equivalent of the entire population of South Carolina," Norwood said. "Think about that. We're being asked to add a 51st state, populated entirely by low-income illegal aliens."

Rep. Nathan Deal, a Georgia Republican, tried unsuccessfully to include in the House bill a provision that would prevent U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants from automatically becoming U.S. citizens.

In the Senate, Isakson and Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), among many others, have called for tighter border controls. However, Chambliss, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, also wants to establish a guest worker program that would ensure that American farms have access to seasonal migrant workers.

And Isakson, who just completed a tour of the U.S.-Mexico border, is including in a bill that would tighten border security a proposal to allow temporary workers to enter the country and give those already here illegally a route to gaining legal status.

"Unlike a lot of issues, which are chicken-and-egg issues, this one is not," Isakson said. "What comes first is securing the border. I don't care what you do with guest workers, with immigration quotas, with domestic enforcement, if you don't have the border sealed, the borders secured, you're never going to be able to get your arms around this problem."

Given the deep divides, immigration reform groups say they can only guess at what kinds of measures, if any, will be enacted before lawmakers break on Labor Day to begin campaigning in earnest for re-election. If any reform is approved, advocates agree, it is likely to be legislation that tightens control of the border since that would demonstrate to voters Congress' determination to get tough on illegal immigration.

The Bush administration is going to press for a guest worker program, advocates and lawmakers said. But given the president's sagging poll numbers and lawmakers' concerns for their own re-election, the chances that he'll get it are uncertain.

"The president has Richard Nixon levels of popularity right now," said Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies. "He's just in no position to push Congress around."


Bob Kemper writes for Atlanta Journal-Constitution. E-mail: bkemper AT aj.com