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June 22, 2006


As We See It: House Republicans getting tough on illegal immigration
It's hardly surprising that the volatile issue of illegal immigration is going to be front and center for fall elections.

The political realities of this debate are behind the reluctance of House Republicans to back President Bush on reform of immigration policies and laws. These same Republican legislators, having to run for office with an increasingly unpopular war and president dominating Democrats' campaigns, also have no interest in fashioning a compromise to the Senate immigration bill approved last month that would provide for a guest worker program and provide avenues for millions of illegal immigrants to gain legal residency status.

Why?

Because Republicans feel most voters back a much tougher approach to illegal immigration, no matter the demonstrations earlier this year sponsored by Latino activists and despite the support of Bush for the Senate bill.

The House Republican majority essentially scuttled the Senate bill Tuesday by announcing it will hold a series of town hall meetings across the nation later this summer on the issue. This will, in effect, stall negotiations on a final bill until after the November elections.

Republicans believe that most Americans favor deporting illegal immigrants and finding an effective way to keep people out in the first place, such as building a wall along the border with Mexico.

For the president, failure to produce meaningful immigration reform would be a setback, but many nervous Republicans firmly believe voters see the Senate bill as equivalent to amnesty, which they oppose.

Even in liberal Santa Cruz County, for instance, the vast majority of letters to this newspaper have favored a much tougher approach to immigration than the Senate legislation would impose.

Republicans also closely watched a California primary election earlier this month, when Republican Brian Bilbray of Carlsbad won the House seat vacated by disgraced and convicted Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham. Bilbray's top campaign issue was getting tougher on illegal immigration.

Colorado Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo is the leader of a 101-member House caucus that supports tougher border security and enforcement. Tancredo told reporters this week that a get-tough stance on immigration is "an issue we can run on and win in November."

Supporters of the Senate bill such as Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy are accusing the House Republicans of delaying consideration of the legislation just to kill any chance at reforming immigration laws. But the reality is that many Americans are uneasy about the prospect of perhaps tens of millions of new immigrants getting a fast-track to legal residency without a full explanation of how this country plans to provide for them.

If nothing is done before November, then both the Senate and House, and presumably, the president, will have to start over on immigration reform in 2007.

Members of the House, who run for office every two years, are closely attuned to what people are saying in their home districts.

Delaying the Senate bill, and even campaigning on a get-tough platform, will provide legislators with clear information on the will of the American people on illegal immigration.