Thread: Reynolds casts doubt on immigration bill

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20 ... 044837.asp

Reynolds casts doubt on immigration bill
By DOUGLAS TURNER
News Washington Bureau Chief
7/12/2006

WASHINGTON - House Republican campaign chairman Thomas M. Reynolds on Tuesday cast a cold eye on prospects for enactment of an immigration bill dealing with the Mexican border before the November election.
Citing the big Republican turnout generated by anger against illegal Mexican immigration in a special election last month in San Diego, Reynolds said House Republicans want to "secure the Southern border first" before giving millions of illegal immigrants from Mexico special "guest worker" status or amnesty.

The four-term congressman from Clarence said that House Republicans whose majority is being strongly challenged in this year's mid-term elections do not like the bipartisan Senate-passed bill that critics say emphasizes amnesty over border enforcement.

"I'm hopeful we'll get to agreement," Reynolds said, "but I don't believe we're just going to cut the Senate bill in half and pass it."

Other House Republicans are privately signaling that the bill is dead for this session.

In the special election for California's 50th district, Democratic hopes that voters would respond to their charges the House GOP majority was driven by a "culture of corruption" did not materialize, Reynolds said. Instead, voters elected Republican Brian Bilbray, a lobbyist, to replace convicted Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

Reynolds also said he "was very much encouraged" by Bush's comments about putting off for a year and a half the imposition of stringent new document requirements for Americans to enter and leave Canada by car.

At a joint news conference here with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper last Thursday, Bush said that if Congress wanted "flexibility" on the deadline for the new land crossing mandate, he could go along with it.

Reynolds said he would introduce legislation putting off the mandate, originally Jan. 1, 2008, until July 1, 2009. The Senate Appropriations committee has passed a a parallel bill.


e-mail: dturner@buffnews.com

Do you have the sinking feeling that a majority of our elected officials
are just waiting to get us past the 2006 mid-term elections so that
they can pass, if not all of S. 2611, at least a majority of it, and, of
course, establish a permanent foreign Guest Worker program? That we
will have "no immigration bill this year" sounds to me like "Washington
speak" for "we will give you the bill we want you to have after these
pesky citizen elections are over"! A number of Representatives who
publically opposed amnesty are now speaking out in favor of Pence's
"Private Guest Worker" program with its foreign "Ellis Island Centers"
provision. Team America calls the Pence plan "stealth amnesty", but
it seems to be the new "vehicle of choice" for the White House. T.A. also
recommended that members of Congress supporting, or leaning toward
supporting, Pence's private Guest Worker program be contacted
individually to express opposition to this new "ploy"!