REGION: Talk of new immigration bill gets mixed reaction
Debate may begin by Labor Day, top Democrat says
By EDWARD SIFUENTES
Sunday, July 12, 2009 4:08 PM PDT ∞

A top Democrat last week said he would put together a new immigration reform bill by Labor Day that would get tough on illegal immigrants, requiring tough sanctions against their employers and new tamper-proof ID cards for all American workers.

The legislation proposed by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee's immigration subcommittee, got mixed reaction from local congressmen and immigration advocates.

Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Solana Beach, and an outspoken critic of illegal immigration, said he liked Schumer's tough talk.

"It was a totally different attitude than what we've heard before," Bilbray said.

Representatives for various immigrant rights groups said they are not opposed to cracking down on employers who hire illegal immigrants, but said that any measure must take a comprehensive approach by also giving illegal immigrants a pathway to legalize their status.

"Everyone understands that the rule of law is part of the balance, but you have to deal with all the pieces," said Clarissa Martinez, director of immigration at the National Council of La Raza, a national Latino civil rights organization.

With its proximity to the U.S. border with Mexico, North County has been a battlefront in the illegal immigration debate. Thousands of illegal immigrants live and work in the region, where local governments, law enforcement, schools and employers struggle daily to cope with this shadow population.

Bilbray, who is chairman of the Immigration Reform Caucus, a group of predominantly Republican members of Congress who favor stricter immigration enforcement measures, said he would like employers to be required to use the government's E-Verify system.

The computer system allows employers to check an employee's information, such as Social Security number, against government databases to make sure that he or she are legally allowed to work in the U.S.

Most immigration experts agree that illegal immigrants are here to work and making it difficult to get jobs would decrease their incentive to come, Bilbray said.

Earlier this week, the Obama Administration announced that it will start requiring all government contractors to use the E-Verify system. Bilbray and other lawmakers criticized the administration's plan, saying it did not go far enough because it does not require all employers to use the system.

"We need to ensure that every business in America uses the E-Verify program to protect against illegal employment and to make sure employers do not exploit the labor of illegal workers," he said.

Other critics, such as Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that lobbies for stricter immigration, said that by endorsing the E-Verify program, the administration may be trying to gain support for an immigration bill later this year that would include legalizing millions of illegal immigrants.

"Both Obama and Schumer have acknowledged that the administration needs real credibility on enforcement if it's ever going to get enough votes in Congress for amnesty and implementing the federal contractor rule could have moved them a little ways in that direction," Krikorian wrote in his blog.

Joe Kasper, a spokesman for Rep. Duncan D. Hunter, R-El Cajon, said now is not the time to debate an immigration bill, especially one that includes the legalization of millions of illegal immigrants.

"With everything else on the table right now, it's hard to believe that Democrats are serious about bringing up immigration reform as one of the next major initiatives," Kasper said. But if they do, "any approach that includes some form of amnesty ... would meet strong resistance by members of both chambers, including Congressman Hunter."

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