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Immigration bill may not be resolved before November
House Republicans put negotiations with the Senate on hold until after they have held nationwide hearings this summer.
Kevin Diaz, Star Tribune

WASHINGTON - A long-sought immigration deal was put in doubt for the rest of the year as House Republicans announced plans Tuesday to put off negotiations with the Senate on a comprehensive reform package sought by President Bush.
House GOP leaders said they will wait until they hold a series of summer hearings around the country, a move that could push off any broad rewrite of the nation's border and immigration policies until well past the November midterm elections.

The decision came as House Republicans, facing tough congres-sional elections in Minnesota and elsewhere, were digging in against the legalization of longtime undocumented immigrants, jeopardizing Bush's calls for a guest-worker program and a pathway to citizenship.

"I'm not putting any timeline on this thing, but I think we need this thing done right," said House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.

The field hearings are to be organized by Hastert and the chairmen of seven House committees with some jurisdiction over immigration policy, aides said. They would begin next month and run through August. That would make September the earliest starting point for House-Senate conference negotiations. Congress is set to recess in early October.

Asked whether a deal could be struck with the Senate in the fall, in the throes of a difficult reelection season, House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said: "I think that's possible. I don't know how likely it is."

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino sought to put the House announcement in a positive light, saying the field hearings could "possibly provide an opportunity to air out issues."

While the Senate plan would allow many illegal immigrants to seek citizenship and establish a guest-worker program, the House version rejects both ideas, beefs up security at the Mexican border and makes illegal immigration a felony.

The view from Minnesota

The mood among Minnesota's Republican House members regarding the Bush-backed changes is uniformly sour.

"I don't think it's the end of the world if we pass nothing," Rep. Gil Gutknecht, R-Minn., said recently. "It would give the administration time to demonstrate that they are serious about enforcing the laws that are on the books now."

All four Republicans in Minnesota's House delegation voted for the get-tough immigration bill in December that calls for hundreds of miles of fence along the U.S.-Mexico border.

While Bush recently talked about "a growing consensus" for a comprehensive immigration package, political observers say the search for a middle ground on Capitol Hill seems more elusive than ever.

"It's possible, but I think the betting odds here are less than 50-50 ... that the conferees will be able to reach agreement," said Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn.

Dayton and Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., were part of a 62-vote bipartisan bloc in the Senate that passed an immigration reform bill beefing up the border and creating a three-tiered process for undocumented workers to obtain citizenship.

But administration efforts to sell the package in the House have not gone well. A recent meeting of the House Republican caucus broke into a debate with White House adviser Karl Rove. Gutknecht said, Rove "barely escaped with his life."

The central issue for the White House appears to be national strategy versus local politics. While Bush and GOP Senate leaders have emphasized the labor needs of U.S. business and a growing clout of Latino voters, many House Republicans worry about constituents back home who have grown impatient with the flow of illegal immigrants.

"It really has people on edge," said Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., who represents the fast-growing suburbs in Carver, Scott and Dakota counties. "This is by far the hottest issue for people in my district."

No 'growing consensus'

The party's conservative base has also come calling.

"There is no 'growing consensus' among the American people for granting amnesty for illegally entering this country," said Chris Simcox, President of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a leading opponent of illegal immigration.

The House tapped into that anger in December when it voted 239 to 182 for a bill focusing on border enforcement and sanctions against employers who hire illegal immigrants.

"Border security is national security, and that has to come first," said Rep. Mark Kennedy, the Republican candidate in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race, expected to be one of the most competitive in the nation.

Like most of his House Republican colleagues from Minnesota, he does not oppose additional work visas for those who fill needed U.S. labor slots.

But he hardly agrees with the Senate measure affording legal status to many illegal immigrants. He said, "My standard would be that no one who is seeking to work here or get here legally should have to stand in line behind someone who has broken the law."