Thread: Senators to Debate Temporary Worker Plans

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washi ... ker_plans/

Senators to debate temporary worker plans
By Suzanne Gamboa, AP
March 15, 2006

WASHINGTON --Farmers and businesses depending on illegal immigrants to fill low-wage jobs are banging against a brick wall in Congress as they push for a temporary worker program.

Even with President Bush on their side, advocates have been unable to overcome those against any proposal that, in an election year, could labeled "amnesty."

The Senate Judiciary Committee has given itself a Thursday deadline to produce a bill that would tighten U.S. borders, impose new sanctions on illegal immigrants and their employers, and give legal status to some workers now here illegally.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has promised a vote on some kind of temporary "guest worker" program after Congress returns March 27 from a weeklong recess, but not necessarily one that includes illegal immigrants, as advocated by Bush.

Bush has proposed a temporary worker program allowing participants to register for legal status for a specific period of time and then be required to return home. It would not provide amnesty, which the administration says it would reject in any proposal, and also would not be an automatic path to citizenship.

"So far there's a desire to do guest worker, but the real desire is to make sure the borders are secure first," Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday.

Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., whose state shares a 180-mile border with Mexico, said the chances of getting a comprehensive bill through the Senate are slim. Lawmakers, he said, "have gone absolutely wild" confusing border violence with 9 million to 12 million illegal immigrants in the country.

"Without sufficient thinking, we're applying to them the anger and opposition that comes to the border activities," Domenici said. "These people, some of them have lived here 30 years, 20 years, 10 years. They are not gangsters and robbers."

Judiciary Committee member Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said a temporary worker program may be an issue for another time.

"We should do a good enforcement bill and leave the administration to execute it, then in the meantime, talk seriously about what we want to do about the future," Sessions said.

However, there still is a lot of sentiment among other committee members to allow some illegal immigrants to remain in the United States, if only temporarily.

A bill drafted by Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., gives illegal immigrants up to five years to leave the country. But they would have to leave and apply from their home country to return, either as temporary workers or for permanent residency.

Specter would allow illegal immigrants with jobs to get worker permits and get in line for legal residency without having to leave the country. Critics say actually acquiring legal residency under that approach could take decades.

Two other committee members -- Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass. -- are pushing a business-backed proposal that would allow illegal immigrants to work for six years and then apply for permanent residency without having to leave the U.S.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who supports the McCain-Kennedy approach, argued that lawmakers can't ignore the 11 million undocumented workers in the country.

"Amnesty to me is not what we are talking about," Graham said. "If I had to pay a $2,000 fine and wait 11 years before I could apply for citizenship I wouldn't think I'd been given amnesty."

Americans are just as divided on immigration.

A Time poll in January found that 73 percent of Americans favor a guest worker program for illegal immigrants, but 46 percent said they should have to return first to their native country and apply for it. About 50 percent favored deporting all illegal immigrants.

The House has already passed a tough immigration enforcement bill without any kind of guest worker program, defying threats from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its allies.

"Without sufficient thinking, we're applying to them the anger and opposition that comes to the border activities," Domenici said.

It must be wonderful to be so intellectually superior to everyone else. Senator Domenici & Graham should form an mutual admiration club.


REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER!

"These people, some of them have lived here 30 years, 20 years, 10 years. They are not gangsters and robbers."

Hmmmm, I wonder where those 400,000 criminal illegal aliens, that the government says are loose in our country, came from?