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Immigration battle hangs on one issue
How to handle foreigners already in U.S. illegally splits lawmakers
Jennifer A. Dlouhy - Hearst Newspapers
Sunday, March 19, 2006

Washington --- Congressional efforts to revamp the nation's immigration laws are hung up on what Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) calls "the real enchilada" --- what to do with the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants already living inside U.S. borders.

Despite weeks of intense work on immigration overhaul --- and a potential compromise on some issues --- leading senators are no closer to figuring out the solution. Debate on the Senate floor is scheduled to begin March 28.

Lawmakers in the House largely have avoided the issue altogether by passing a get-tough bill that focuses on securing the nation's borders.

The debate is polarizing, said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

On one side are lawmakers "who want everyone to be citizens tomorrow," Graham said. "And there are people who want to put the 12 million . . . on a bus" and ship them back to their home countries.

"Neither one is going to happen," Graham added. "There is nothing a U.S. senator can do to please everyone on this issue."

President Bush's solution is to create a new visa that foreigners could use to temporarily work in jobs that U.S. employers have trouble filling with Americans.

But Bush did not say how wide open the guest worker program should be for undocumented workers already living in the United States --- and what hurdles they first would have to clear to participate.

Bush encouraged lawmakers to fight it out, but the struggle shows no signs of ending soon. Senators are nearing a deal on one aspect of the overhaul: creation of a guest worker program for foreigners who are not already in the United States.

Under one compromise version, foreigners would have to return to their home countries after two years but could reapply for visas entitling them to up to six more years of U.S. work.

Compromise notwithstanding, senators remain deeply divided over the fate of illegal immigrants already here. Even those lawmakers who agree they want to create some kind of guest worker program for this group cannot come together on the details. One of the biggest sticking points is whether to require illegal immigrants to return to their home countries before they can apply for the new work visa.

Kennedy and other liberal immigration advocates say that approach would turn off illegal immigrants. Instead of encouraging "them to come out of the shadows," Kennedy said, requiring illegal immigrants to return to their home countries will drive them further underground.

The other big question is how easy to make it for illegal immigrants to become citizens after working under the temporary visa.

At least seven options are floating around Capitol Hill --- ranging from a liberal plan advanced by Kennedy and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to a more restrictive conservative proposal offered by Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Jon Kyl of Arizona.

The Kennedy-McCain measure would allow illegal immigrants to work for six years in the United States if they clear background checks, pay back taxes and pay fines of at least $1,000. After six years, they could apply for green cards, but they would not be eligible for citizenship until the government first cleared a backlog of roughly 3 million pending green card applications.

The bill by Cornyn and Kyl would require illegal immigrants to leave the United States sometime within the next five years, and then apply for guest worker visas that would allow them to work in the United States for up to two years. After that, they would have to return home for a year before applying to participate up to two more times, for a total of six years. The Cornyn-Kyl proposal would not create a new path to citizenship.

A measure by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, offers a compromise by creating a new "gold card" for illegal immigrants that would allow them to stay and work inside the United States for two years. The "gold card" could be indefinitely renewed. Under the Specter plan, there would be no new path for illegal immigrants to become citizens.

Cornyn insisted it is crucial the United States not do anything that could be perceived as amnesty, or rewarding lawbreakers.

But supporters of the Kennedy-McCain approach, including some conservatives such as Graham and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), insist it is not amnesty because of the many hurdles illegal immigrants must clear before getting legal work visas and applying for citizenship. To get green cards, the illegal immigrants would have to work for six years, learn English, pay fines and clear a background check.

For lawmakers, the issue is politically treacherous --- and it touches every state, not just those on the nation's border with Mexico.

Brownback said the issue comes up again and again when he visits his constituents. "You can't get further from the border than in my state, and this is the No. 1 or No. 2 issue I hear about," he said.