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Republicans Slate New Immigration Hearings
NewsMax.com Wires
Friday, June 23, 2006

WASHINGTON -- House Republican leaders on Thursday scheduled five new hearings on immigration and said they still hope to send a border security bill to President Bush before 2007.

"We want to make sure the Congress gets this done the right way and not be rushed just because its an election year," said Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois.

For many Republicans as well as some Democrats sensitive about public opinion in an election year, the right way is without provisions in a Senate-passed bill that would bestow legal status on millions of illegal immigrants.

"We can send an immigration bill to the president this year," Hastert said.

At a news conference, Hastert and other senior House Republicans referred to the Senate bill as the "Reid-Kennedy" bill, referencing Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada and liberal Democrat Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts.

Kennedy and Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona were the chief architects of the Senate bill. It became known as the Hagel-Martinez bill, after Sens. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., and Mel Martinez, R-Fla., developed a compromise that, while allowing millions of illegal immigrants to stay, would make millions of others leave. Bush supports letting some illegal immigrants stay and eventually become citizens.

"Two thirds of the votes that passed the bill came from Senate Democrats," House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in explanation.

Republican-led House committees held two hearings here Thursday, one on non-citizens voting in elections and the other on the Labor Department's oversight of high-tech workers in the U.S. on temporary visas.

A hearing on intelligence and border security is scheduled next Wednesday in Washington.

Also on the schedule are hearings July 5 in San Diego and July 7 in Laredo, Texas, on "Border Vulnerabilities and International Terrorism."

The House Education and Workforce Committee will hold a field hearing outside Washington in mid-July on making English the nation's official language and how enforcement of immigration laws affects U.S. workers. The location and date haven't been set.

And the House Government Reform Committee plans a hearing the week of Aug. 14 in Arizona focusing on costs to local, state and federal government "caused by an unsecured border."

Supporters of the Senate bill also plan hearings. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., scheduled a hearing in his state July 5 looking at the need for more foreign guest workers.

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