Thread: White House renews effort to overhaul laws

http://www.wzzm13.com/news/news_article ... ryid=71786

White House renews effort to overhaul laws
Also from USA TODAY: Fee increase could curb citizenship applications
USA TODAY Coverage

The White House
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By Kathy Kiely, USA TODAY

Created: 3/1/2007 11:11:13 AM
Updated: 3/1/2007 11:12:48 AM


WASHINGTON - President Bush waded gingerly back into the debate over immigration Wednesday, as two of his top lieutenants urged Congress to grant "legal status" to an estimated 12 million people now living in the country illegally.

Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff stopped short, however, of endorsing a plan to give illegal immigrants a chance at citizenship. "I believe what people want first and foremost is to have legal status," Gutierrez said. "I don't think everyone wants to be a citizen."

The two men's appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee marks the beginning of an effort to revive a sweeping overhaul of the nation's immigration laws - a debate that last year set off a wave of demonstrations across the country. Legislation bogged down late in the last Congress when House Republican leaders refused to take up a Senate-passed bill that won Bush's public stamp of approval.

The Senate bill provided for improved border security, tougher penalties for employers who hire illegal aliens, a tamper-proof Social Security card, an expanded "guest worker" program to allow foreigners to work in the USA and a chance at citizenship for those living and working in the country illegally. But some Republican critics, such as Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., said the bill was too lenient, equating the citizenship provision to amnesty.

Last year's election improved the bill's chances for passage by putting Democrats in charge of both the House and Senate and ousting several leading Republican critics of the Senate immigration bill, such as J.D. Hayworth of Arizona and John Hostettler of Indiana. Voters were "clearly rejecting … the hard-line, tough-guy posture," said Cecilia Muñoz of the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group that backed the legislation. Muñoz said this year - a non-election year - is "the best window we're going to have" for passage of legislation that "could be a, if not the, major piece of the president's domestic legacy."

Bush seems to agree. At a press conference last month, the president said he sees "an interesting opportunity" to work with Democrats to enact legislation he has sought since his first term.

Once again, the chief sticking point appears likely to be fate of the nation's illegal population. "We can't kick them out of our country," Bush said at his press conference in February. At the Senate hearing, Chertoff said deporting all of them would be "a gargantuan task."

Democrats argue that offering an eventual chance at citizenship is the only way to guarantee the elimination of an exploitable underclass of workers. "We need to establish a path to citizenship that is fair and predictable," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was to have said in remarks scheduled for delivery Wednesday night to the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. "It may be a path of many steps, but the endpoint must be clear and attainable."

Under last year's Senate bill, illegal immigrants could seek citizenship if they hold a job, pay taxes, take English classes, pay a fine for their illegal entry and have not committed any felonies. "This is not amnesty," said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., who was one of the leading opponents of the Senate bill and who is now the third-ranking member of the Senate Republican leadership, said in an interview outside the hearing that the two Cabinet secretaries refusal to commit to the citizenship approach was deliberate.

"Everybody's being cautious about being very specific there because clearly that's where the final compromises have to come if there's going to be legislation," Kyl said. The senator said that Republican opponents of last year's Senate bill might be willing to go along with a deal that offers some, but not all, illegal immigrants a chance to gain legal status "if there are other factors put into the mix." He put the chances of enacting a bill this year at "better than 50-50."

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., warned that enacting a bill "is not going to be an easy process." That cheers Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which opposed last year's Senate-passed bill. He predicted that lawmakers will remain split over the immigration bills most controversial provisions. "There aren't very many Republicans left who are prepared to go marching off a cliff with George Bush anymore," Mehlman said.

On the other end of the spectrum, Sonia Ramirez of the AFL-CIO said labor won't back an immigration bill unless it contains safeguards that protect foreign workers from abuse and domestic workers from job loss. She also said the unions favor "a path to citizenship" for those who have been living and working in the country illegally.

On the other end of the spectrum, Sonia Ramirez of the AFL-CIO said labor won't back an immigration bill unless it contains safeguards that protect foreign workers from abuse and domestic workers from job loss. She also said the unions favor "a path to citizenship" for those who have been living and working in the country illegally.

That is discouraging--thought they stood firmly opposed--wonder what they've been promised???

We don't need a new bill! Enforce our Laws!

Amnesty/path to citizenship is status quo. America has done it and it didn't work then and it wont work now. Just don't do it.

Dixie

"Everybody's being cautious about being very specific there because clearly that's where the final compromises have to come if there's going to be legislation," Kyl said. The senator said that Republican opponents of last year's Senate bill might be willing to go along with a deal that offers some, but not all, illegal immigrants a chance to gain legal status "if there are other factors put into the mix." He put the chances of enacting a bill this year at "better than 50-50."

Here we go!

AMNESTY in sheep's clothing!!!
> Touch-Back program
> Gain Legal Status
> Path to Citizenship
> Guest Worker Program
> Comprehensive ANYTHING

Dixie wrote

Amnesty/path to citizenship is status quo. America has done it and it didn't work then and it wont work now. Just don't do it.

A big reason why it still won't work is because even if they did grant legal status, they won't close the border. Thousands come across everyday and this uninterupted flow would put us right back where we are now in 5 years.