Gregg hasn't taken position on immigration reform bill
By SCOTT BROOKS
New Hampshire Union Leader Staff
June 6, 2007


Sen. Judd Gregg has yet to take a position on the Senate's controversial immigration reform package, even as debate on the bill comes to a head today on the Senate floor.

A spokesman yesterday said Gregg "continues to consider" the legislation, which would create a path to citizenship for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S.

"He won't be making a decision on the final package until he sees what happens with the remaining amendments," spokesman Erin Rath said yesterday.

The Senate is expected to vote today on a motion that would cut off debate on the bill.

Gregg has called himself a strong supporter of immigration reform. Last month, in a statement on the Senate floor, he said he supports the Senate proposal "in concept, although I still want to see how it will end up in detail."

Opponents of the bill have pressured Gregg to take their side. Merrimack Republican Bob Bevill, who heads the conservative New Hampshire Eagle Forum, has urged them to direct their pleas to Gregg's office.

"Seventy six percent of Americans do not want amnesty, and Sen. Gregg has not made up his mind," Bevill said yesterday. "We want him to know that his constituents have made up their minds."

Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Republican Presidential candidate from Colorado, took aim at Gregg at a press conference outside the senator's Manchester office Tuesday.

Tancredo, who is running on an anti-immigration platform, used the occasion to launch his "Save America Campaign," asking citizens to petition Gregg and other Republican senators to vote against the immigration reform package.

The petitions ask New Hampshire residents to "actively campaign against" Gregg in the next election if he votes to pass the bill.

In a prepared response, Gregg accused Tancredo of aligning himself with politicians "who are using a jingoistic and demagogic approach of opposition to immigrants as a way to raise their own political visibility."

The senator said Tancredo is part of a "new 'know nothing' wing of the political spectrum," a reference to the anti-immigrant "Know Nothing" party that rose to prominence in the 1850s.

"There are, unfortunately, people who wish to bury their heads in the sand by ignoring the threat our present dysfunctional system represents to our country," Gregg said. "These politicians are not constructive players to the process of working toward solving one of America's most pressing and critical problems."

Gregg called the Senate bill a "sincere attempt" to address an "out-of-control immigration situation" in the U.S.

He said he hopes the bill will be amended and improved "in a manner that will give us full control of the borders and a logical approach to a guest worker and immigration program."

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