Thread: Immigration reform creates unusual alliances

Sunday, May 27, 2007


Immigration reform creates unusual alliances

By: EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer

With the new U.S. Senate immigration reform under assault from all sides, it might be surprising to hear so many in Washington, D.C., say they expect it to survive.

The bill, known as the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007, was a compromise resulting from closed-door negotiations among a group of about a dozen Democratic and Republican senators and Bush administration officials.

The bill would make some of the most substantive changes to the nation's immigration system in 20 years. Among other things, it would give an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants the opportunity to legalize their status. It would create a guest-worker program and adopt new criteria for future legal immigration.

But the proposal has been criticized by groups on the political left and right. Liberals say the bill would lead to the breakup of immigrant families; conservatives say it would give amnesty to millions who broke the law by coming into the country illegally.

Nevertheless, people in both camps, including a North County lawmaker, said last week they expect the bill to become law in one form or another.

"Yes, it could pass," said Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Solana Beach, a staunch opponent of the bill's legalization provisions. "This is Washington, D.C. This is where the politics of the possible becomes the absurd."

Bilbray said he would work to defeat the bill.

Tamar Jacoby, a conservative analyst focusing on immigration who supports the bill, said Bilbray is in the minority and she likes the bill's chances of being approved.

"Ninety-nine percent of the people want this problem solved," Jacoby said. "The only people who don't want to pass (the bill) are a few politicians who use immigration as a wedge issue."

No easy path

Admittedly, it will not be easy to pass such a far-reaching proposal, Jacoby said.

Though Democrats control both houses of Congress, their majorities are slim, especially in the Senate. And neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are united on the matter of immigration.

Moreover, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., have both said they want a bipartisan immigration reform bill. That is due partly to the number of votes needed from each party and to a need for political cover in next year's elections, some analysts said.

Bilbray and other say that passing a bill that legalizes illegal immigrants will provoke a strong reaction in the electorate that would send Democrats back to the minority in Congress.

Sen. Reid, who expected to pass the bill before the end of the month, instead put off a final vote until next month.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, who is considered a moderate on immigration reform but opposes key provisions in the bill, said Democrats are unlikely to get much Republican support without substantial changes.

"This is a Democratic bill with a few token Republicans," Issa said. "Pelosi has said she wants 70 Republicans (in the House); I think she has 20. This is a 90 percent Democratic bill."

Jacoby agreed that getting 70 Republican votes may be difficult, but added that there would be a significant number of Republicans voting for the final bill.

"That's the nature of compromise," she said. "I think even at the end, people will be a little angry."

An amendment backed by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., to eliminate the bill's guest-worker program underscores the political divisions and the difficulty in achieving bipartisan support.

Some labor unions, which say the guest-worker program would depress wages and create a class of workers with fewer job rights, supported the amendment.

The amendment, one of about a dozen offered last week, failed on a 64-31 vote with a large number of Democrats voting to eliminate the program, including Sen. Reid.

The senate instead passed a proposal by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., to drastically reduce the guest-worker program from up to 600,000 visas annually to just 200,000. It passed the Senate overwhelmingly Wednesday.

Immigrant rights groups optimistic

Outside the capitol, the bill has created some strange bedfellows and divisions.

Farmworker unions have joined growers in support of the bill. And though not for the same reasons, the proposal was criticized by some immigrant rights groups and anti-illegal immigration activists.

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, an anti-illegal immigration group based in Arizona, launched a letter-writing and call-in campaign criticizing the bill's legalization provisions to lobby senators against the immigration reform bill.

On the other side, labor and civil rights groups said they oppose various provisions, but most of them said they hope to improve the proposal rather than defeat it.

Cecilia Munoz, vice president of the National Council of La Raza, a Latino rights group, said her organization wants guest workers to have a path to legal permanent residency, which the current proposal does not permit.

The proposal would allow illegal immigrants to apply for a temporary residency permit. They could then apply for a new type of visa that would allow them to live and work legally in the country.

That visa could be renewed for as long as the immigrant submits to a criminal background check, keeps a job and pays a $5,000 fine plus processing fees. For a family to become official permanent legal residents, the head of the household would have to return to the home country first. That process could take eight to 13 years.

Immigrant rights groups criticized the legalization program as burdensome, expensive and anti-family. They also criticized the change in priorities for future immigrants.

The bill would limit family eligibility to the spouses and minor children of American citizens. Adult children and siblings ---- who can be sponsored by an American citizen under the current rules ---- would need other criteria to qualify.

Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, a group that advocates for immigrants, said the group hopes to lobby lawmakers to adopt changes that favor family reunification.

"We're both fighting and biting our nails," Sharry said. "But we are fighters and we are in this to win."

Growers want reform

Sharry and other immigrant rights advocates said their criticisms of the bill have been overly emphasized in the media. He said a worse option than passing an "imperfect" bill is doing nothing.

Other provisions of the bill include legalization programs for some illegal immigrant students and farmworkers.

Luawanna Hallstrom, general manager of Harry Singh & Sons, an Oceanside-based tomato grower, said that without the immigration reform bill, and specifically provisions that allow growers to bring foreign workers to their farms, her business could be put in jeopardy.

"The truth of the matter is that there aren't enough Americans, and there are enough opportunities (elsewhere in the economy), that Americans don't need to take these jobs," said Hallstrom, who is co-chairwoman of the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform, a group that lobbies on behalf of the agriculture industry.

Hallstrom said that if there is no immigration reform, she may consider moving her operation to Mexico. That would take not only agriculture jobs with it, but also industry support jobs as well.

Bilbray and Issa disagreed with Hallstrom's assertion.

"The land in Mexico and the people in Mexico work cheaper," Bilbray said. "Her program has been what's good for their business. She does not lobby for what's best for America. There is nothing stopping her from going to Mexico today."

Hallstrom called Bilbray's proposals for work and border enforcement first "narrow-minded" and "not realistic."

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/05 ... _26_07.txt

Bilbray and other say that passing a bill that legalizes illegal immigrants will provoke a strong reaction in the electorate that would send Democrats back to the minority in Congress.

You are so right about that!

Dixie

Tamar Jacoby, a conservative analyst focusing on immigration who supports the bill, said Bilbray is in the minority and she likes the bill's chances of being approved.

"Ninety-nine percent of the people want this problem solved," Jacoby said. "The only people who don't want to pass (the bill) are a few politicians who use immigration as a wedge issue."

Ms. Jacoby is constantly attempting to paint us and anyone else who supports legal immigration and the law as the minority. I know this to be true because I've read several articles from her and a ton of quotes in illegal immigrant favorable articles. This lady is extremely disingenuous and is not above lieing to twist the facts in favor of her argument.

Tamar Jacoby has no concern for Americans and is not good for America!