N.J. lawmakers criticize immigration compromise

Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 05/27/07
BY RAJU CHEBIUM


WASHINGTON — Telephones at the offices of New Jersey's congressional lawmakers began ringing soon after Senate and White House officials announced a deal on immigration reform.

It has been more than a week, and the calls have not stopped.
Lawmakers say they've gotten hundreds of calls, mostly from people angry that the Senate proposal would allow an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants to remain in the United States. Aides to Rep. H. James Saxton said the Mount Holly Republican alone has received 102 calls in the past two weeks, all opposing the deal.

Garden State lawmakers, who are bound to get an earful on immigration from constituents over the weeklong Memorial Day recess, say they cannot support the legislation as written.

Rep. Robert E. Andrews, D-Haddon Heights, reiterated Thursday that the legislation should be changed significantly before he would vote for it on the House floor after the Senate approves it — if at all.

While it is impractical to deport all illegal immigrants as some critics favor, Andrews said he wants to make sure undocumented workers granted temporary legal status break no other law, work to learn English and pay some back taxes.

Constituents are right to be upset that some of their tax dollars go to pay for health care and other benefits for illegal aliens, he said.

But if all illegal aliens were to leave tomorrow, he said, the amount the nation spends on education and health care would decrease "very, very marginally," Andrews said.

"I acutely understand middle-class frustration," he said, adding that Congress should provide extra money to hire additional immigration officers to reduce the backlog for green cards that have caused years-long delays for thousands of legal Garden State residents.

New Jersey Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez, the son of Cuban immigrants who has been a key player in the immigration debate, also has said he could not support the deal, though he worked behind closed doors to reach a compromise between Democrats and Republicans.

To change the terms more to his liking, Menendez has teamed up with Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., to introduce a measure that would make reuniting legal immigrants with their spouses and children living abroad a top priority. It now takes five to 10 years for spouses and underage children of legal immigrants to get green cards, according to Menendez' staff.

Speaking on the Senate floor Wednesday, Menendez urged people to refrain from reflexively condemning all immigration.

"We continue to hear hateful rhetoric used to polarize and divide our country on this issue," he said. "But we must never allow ourselves to buy into the rhetoric; we must never subscribe to the policies of fear and division driven by xenophobia, nativism and racism."

His counterpart in the Senate, Democrat Frank R. Lautenberg, said he has not yet decided how to vote on immigration reform.


Meanwhile, some Garden State Republicans are coming out strongly against granting legal status to undocumented foreigners.

Rep. Frank A. LoBiondo, R-Ventnor, said allowing those who entered the United States illegally to remain here "is the very definition of amnesty. If the amnesty principles remain as proposed, the Senate should and must defeat the bill. I would be the first to vote against an amnesty bill."



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