GOP still hopes for fence on border
Immigration: Key Democrats say they won't block border fence bill

By Lisa Friedman
The Press Telegram (Long Beach, CA), September 19, 2006

http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_4365265

Washington -- With the congressional session barreling to a close and politicians eager to hit the campaign trail, Republicans moved with new determination Tuesday to seal off the U.S. border and impose strict new immigration controls.

The accelerated pace means the Senate is expected to consider as early as today Republican-sponsored legislation that would stretch 700 miles of fence along the U.S.-Mexico border.

And while key Democrats said they will try to attach provisions that would legalize undocumented immigrants, they also vowed not to block the bill if Republicans force it to the floor without amendments.

If the Senate approves the bill, it will go to President Bush for his signature.

Its passage would mark a significant step forward in months of legislative haggling over immigration reform and would open the door for Republicans to push through a flurry of additional get-tough border measures aimed at bolstering their base and turning up the heat on Democrats.

'What Republicans appear to be doing is passing all the things for which there is a lot of support among the public and leaving the rest,' said Steven Camarota, research director for the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors a more restrictive immigration policy.

As for the border fence, Camarota said, 'In an election year, my guess is that Democrats are not going to fight it very hard. It's not what they wanted, but they might go along.'

As of Tuesday afternoon, that appeared to be the case.

With a procedural vote set for this afternoon that would signal the start of debate on authorizing the double-layer fence along 2,000 miles of California, Arizona and Texas border lands, Democrats appeared reluctant to put up much resistance.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said they expect many Democrats to support the Secure Fence Act of 2006.

'Democrats are solidly behind controlling the border, and we support the border fence,' Feinstein said.

'This is all meant to box Democrats in to voting `no' and we're not going to fall for it.'

Several Republicans insisted that passing the border fence separately will not hurt chances of voting on a broad immigration reform down the road.

'We only have about two weeks left, and I think we ought to get pragmatic about what we can finish,' said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. 'People like me are committed to comprehensive reform.'

Added Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., 'I think we've seen here that complete reform or comprehensive reform is not moving ahead until we can guarantee the American people that we can secure our borders. The only way to get comprehensive reform is to do this first.'

Feinstein said she will vote in favor of the fence even if no guest worker provisions are included.

'We've got to get tough on the border,' she said. 'There's no question that the border is a sieve. What I regret is that it's not going to solve the problem.'

Eun Sook Lee, executive director of the National Korean American Service and Education Consortium in Los Angeles, said she fears Congress has lost the political will for immigration reform.

'We feel like this is the first step in the wrong direction,' she said of the fence bill. 'We think that they're trying to take what seems like the easy way out of a complicated problem that deals with not just security but family and people's lives.