Thread: Immigration bill advocates optimistic

http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_3316544

Immigration bill advocates optimistic

By Mike Soraghan
Denver Post Staff Writer
DenverPost.com

Washington - Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives predict victory tonight for legislation clamping down on illegal immigration.

"It's a done deal," said Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Littleton, a leader among immigration hardliners.

"We have made enormous strides with this bill, more than I anticipated we could do in this Congress."

Rep. Bob Beauprez, R-Arvada, said the mood on the floor of the House is that the bill will pass tonight.

"I expect later tonight we'll pass the bill with a comfortable margin and some bipartisan support," Beauprez said.

The bill would order employers to check the immigration status of their workers and beef up criminal penalties for the nation's estimated 11 million illegal immigrants.

In a last-minute change, the bill now calls for construction of fences in some areas to block border crossings from Mexico.

Tancredo and other hardliners blocked consideration of anything resembling President Bush's guest-worker plan, which would allow illegal immigrants to stay in the country temporarily to fill jobs.

Once passed, the bill will go to the Senate, where many expect the guest-worker plan to be added back in. The Senate debate is expected to begin in February.

Supporters of the bill said increased control of the border is vital to ensuring security, and said the United States is straining under the burdens of millions of illegal immigrants.

"We do not have the luxury of turning a blind eye to border security and doing nothing," said Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga.

The bill's critics, however, called it a "xenophobic" measure that punishes some of society's most vulnerable members in the name of homeland security.

"There is no group of American workers who work harder for less money than illegal immigrants," said Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va. "They're willing to walk across miles of desert for jobs that Americans won't do. We've got to respect that."

Mr. Moran, twenty years ago the apartments here in my building rented for $400 a month and the landscaper made $7.50 an hour today the rent is $1000 a month and the landscaper makes $7.50 an hour. At what the landscaper used to make there were native born today they are immigrants. If the pay had gone up by two and a half times in those years there would still be a staff of mostly native born landscapers.
Americans are being undercut by illegal immigrant labor.