Thread: FLA Lawmakers Resist President's Immigration Plan

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/14662648.htm
Thursday, May 25, 2006

Fla. lawmakers resist president's immigration plan
With the Senate poised to endorse immigration reform today, many Florida members of the House are against the Bush legalization plan.

BY LESLEY CLARK
lclark@MiamiHerald.com

WASHINGTON - Given Florida's large immigrant population, some might expect that President Bush would find a receptive audience for immigration reform proposals that include a path to citizenship for many who are here illegally.

But the president's difficulties in persuading his own party to embrace his views are reflected in the deep divisions among Florida's largely Republican congressional delegation.

Florida Republican Sen. Mel Martinez has taken a central role in promoting Bush's two-pronged plan to provide a way to seek legalization and enhanced border security.

But even with Martinez's success at hammering out a Senate compromise -- which GOP leaders expect to be approved today -- even tougher challenges await in the House. Most of Florida's 18 Republican House members, some facing reelection challenges, are adamantly opposed to a measure that would allow for legalization.

'What part of `illegal entry' don't some people in government understand?'' Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, a Brooksville Republican, said before a GOP meeting Wednesday with Karl Rove, Bush's political strategist, that left her unpersuaded. ``We try to sugarcoat by calling them undocumented workers. They have broken the law.''

And Rep. Tom Feeney, an Oviedo Republican who, with Ocala Republican Cliff Stearns, was among the co-sponsors of the House legislation that Martinez says has become household conversation in Hispanic communities, declared:

``My constituents have no confidence that the government is serious when it says it's going to secure the border. My feeling is, secure the borders and then maybe we can talk in a year or two about doing more.''

Representing more conservative, largely North and Central Florida communities, most of the GOP House members have endorsed strict House legislation that would put up a wall along the border with Mexico and increase the penalties for illegal entry into the United States. There are no provisions for guest workers or legalization.

But one of two Florida Republicans who voted against the House bill, Miami Republican Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart, said, ``Addressing only a portion of the issue will not solve the immigration problem.''

`FAMILY REALITY'

''This doesn't get done without addressing the 11 million people who want only to become Americans,'' said Díaz-Balart, who chairs the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute and hosted its first congressional briefing last week, inviting Martinez, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., who all pressed for comprehensive reform. ``It's an economic reality for business; it's a family reality for millions of people.''

Joining him as the only other Floridian to vote against the House bill was Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, also a Miami Republican. Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, R-Miami, missed the House vote but has said he opposes the measure. Rep. Bill Young, R-St. Petersburg, also did not vote on the measure.

But the issue that has roiled Congress has touched a nerve among the Republican base, particularly on talk radio and among party activists, said Rep. Jeff Miller, a Panhandle Republican who voted for the House bill.

HIGHLY CONTROVERSIAL

''This has generated more controversy than any issue since I took office,'' said Miller, elected to the House in 2000. ``It's probably fivefold in interest over anything else.''

Martinez has suggested that the Republican Party risks losing its majority status if it alienates the Hispanics it has sought to court.

But with Bush's popularity numbers falling and the war in Iraq increasingly unpopular, the warning about capturing future voters carries little weight with some House members -- some of whom will be on the ballot in November.

''He doesn't have to run again for four years,'' Brown-Waite, a member of the staunchly ''border first'' House Immigration Reform Caucus, said flatly of Martinez. She joined fellow caucus members at a news conference last week to denounce the Senate legislation, named after Martinez and Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb.

And Miller argues that the party risks jeopardizing its majority status by alienating its conservative base if it doesn't ``ensure that those who are here illegally go home first.''

Rep. Clay Shaw, a Fort Lauderdale Republican in a seat that Democrats are targeting, voted for the House bill and opposes a guest-worker provision until it has been ``thought through, and this one hasn't.''

Shaw's district in Broward and Palm Beach counties includes a growing number of Hispanics, and he acknowledged ''dangers on both sides'' of the immigration debate.

''Politically,'' he said, ``there's really no way we're going to come out ahead on this issue.''

With the Senate toughening its bill -- prompting fears from immigrant advocates that the end result will be as strict as the House legislation -- Martinez suggested that some House members may be softening.

''I think there's a certain flexibility in what I hear from them privately that I don't always hear in the public rhetoric,'' Martinez said.

Rep. Adam Putnam of Bartow, a member of the powerful House Republican Policy Committee whose district includes agribusiness interests that want immigrant labor, said he is committed to forging a compromise. He voted for the House bill but says it ``dealt with only a third of the problem.''

Putnam, though, suggested that a resolution won't be forthcoming until after the election.

''It's unlikely there will be a conference product before November,'' Putnam said. ``But we're going to find some middle ground.''

Martinez thinks he can become President - and who knows ???????