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Kennedy makes push for immigration bill
Friday, June 22, 2007
By JO-ANN MORIARTY
Jo-ann.moriarty@ newhouse. com

WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., told farm workers yesterday that the immigration reform bill will be brought back to the Senate floor for deliberation within days, and that the Senate is determined to vote on it, even if it means working weekends and during the July 4th weekend.
Once the energy bill clears the Senate floor, the bipartisan but controversial immigration bill, written by Kennedy and Sen. Arlen J. Specter, R-Pa., will be back before the Senate, he said.
"Dealing with immigration is central to the challenge of civil rights," Kennedy said. "We have come a long way."


Kennedy, the second longest-serving member of the Senate, said that America was a segregated nation until only 40 years ago when Congress began passing civil rights laws and much progress has been made since that time. For Kennedy, immigration is a civil rights issue as well.
Finding middle ground between citizens who want to deport the 12 million immigrants living here illegally and the majority of the population, which supports keeping families together through earned citizenship, is not going to happen by "bumper sticker solutions," Kennedy said.
"I think we should work over the weekend and through the Fourth of July recess," Kennedy said.
The Massachusetts Democrat met with farm workers and labor leaders in the wake of a new poll conducted by pollster Sergio Bendixen for New America Media. The poll found that 83 percent of illegal immigrants from Latin American are willing to comply with new provisions in the comprehensive immigration bill.
To reach legal status, the pending legislation would require illegal immigrants to pay their back taxes, pay fines for each individual within a household, keep a clean criminal record and learn English.
The poll found that by a large margin illegal immigrants are willing to undergo criminal background checks, pay fines and fees and return to their countries of origin - if they are guaranteed re-entry - to put themselves on the track for legalization, Bendixen said.
"This poll today demonstrates that this bipartisan reform bill would work," Kennedy said. "It would work because the 12 million undocumented immigrants who are here today will pay the high price to become an American citizen."