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S.A. businessmen push for immigration reform

Web Posted: 09/27/2006 03:00 PM CDT

Gary Martin
Express-News Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - A partisan debate over illegal immigration spilled over Wednesday at a coffee klatch for San Antonio business leaders who were urged by Democratic lawmakers to push Republicans to embrace comprehensive reform.

Lawmakers from both parties offered differing views on the immigration issue, and one San Antonio businessman vented his frustration that nothing is being done.

Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, challenged the San Antonio group to carry their concerns to Rep. Lamar Smith, poised to be chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and who has publicly opposed guest worker and earned legalization plans.

"Lamar Smith is a good friend of mine, but it's a golden opportunity for San Antonio to have an input into illegal immigration - to help shape public policy,'' Cuellar said after addressing the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber is in Washington this week to lobby lawmakers for local projects.

Cuellar told the group that if Republicans retain control of the House after the Nov. 7 election, and Smith is re-elected, the San Antonio lawmaker is in line to become the next chairman of the Judiciary Committee, which oversees immigration law.

The comment was prompted by a question from Gary Cram of Cram Roofing in San Antonio, who voiced frustration with the failure of Congress to enact comprehensive reform that includes a guest worker plan.

He said it is getting difficult to get legal workers for jobs that Americans don't want.

"What are we going to do to get something done?'' Cram asked. Cram said his company and others in San Antonio would be adversely affected if Congress walls off the border but fails to provide a legal means for workers to come into the country.

"Did we learn anything in Berlin?'' Cram asked later in an interview. Because 50 percent of Cram Roofing jobs are government-related, "we couldn't hire illegal aliens if we wanted.''

"It's very difficult to find legal workers,'' Cram said.

His questions were posed as the House and Senate are debating a series of piecemeal measures that include building a 730-mile fence on the U.S.-Mexico border and authorizing local police to enforce federal immigration laws.

The Senate passed a comprehensive immigration bill in July that includes guest worker and earned legalization provisions. v A competing House bill favors a strict border security approach in the run-up to the election.

"We are basically taking a terrorism issue and trying to turn it into an immigration issue. It doesn't seem related to me,'' Cram said following the breakfast.

Smith, a member of the House Judiciary subcommittee on immigration, told San Antonio businessmen and women Tuesday that he could be in a position to write immigration legislation when Congress convenes next year.

He said he was open to guest worker provisions, but only after a tamper-proof ID card is issued and it is determined how it will impact American workers, and what would be done to temporary employees in the jobs that they are allowed into the country to do. Smith also said the issue is complex, and that there is a "general consensus to secure our border.''

A comprehensive reform of immigration law would take at least a full legislative year to complete, Smith said, noting that the 1986 bill took more than four years.

Critics have called the House border security approach a political strategy to push conservative voters to the polls on Nov. 7.

While Republicans could reap short-term benefits at the polls, the party could suffer long-term consequences with Latinos, the fastest growing minority group in the country, said Cecilia Munoz, vice president of the National Council of La Raza.

Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, told the business leaders they should reject "politics of fear" and push lawmakers to drop the vitriolic rhetoric in the debate on immigration.

"We need to get real about this and quit milking it for its political capital - or we are headed for an economic train wreck,'' Gonzalez said.


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gmartin@express-news.net