From Newsday:

Path to citizenship is backed, but felons would be denied legal status; hard-liners push for border fence

BY CRAIG GORDON
NEWSDAY WASHINGTON BUREAU

May 18, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The Senate yesterday endorsed a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants but also backed law-and-order provisions to satisfy Republican hard-liners -- a 370-mile border fence and a no-felons-allowed bar to legal status.

This honey-and-vinegar approach boosted Senate chances of passing a bill in line with President George W. Bush's wish list, strengthening border security while creating a guest-worker program and clearing the way to citizenship for some of the 12 million undocumented.

But final congressional approval remained in doubt yesterday as House Republicans stood by their call for a security-only plan despite a visit from Bush political emissary Karl Rove.

Also, one top House Republican leveled a blistering attack against Bush, saying he had "basically turned his back" on tough border-security legislation with his calls to let many undocumented workers strive for citizenship.

"Regardless of what the president says, what he is proposing is amnesty," said Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), who as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee would lead House negotiators in trying to forge a compromise with the Senate later this year.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld insisted that Bush's plan to send up to 6,000 National Guard troops to the border with Mexico wouldn't restrict the Pentagon's war-fighting abilities in Iraq or disaster-response mission at home. He said the deployment was less than 2 percent of the Guard's 445,000 part-time troops. "It will actually provide useful, real-life training for the members of the National Guard," Rumsfeld said.

Despite the progress in the Senate, tempers flared among Republicans, with critics of the citizenship provisions blasting them as an amnesty that forgives law-breakers. Supporters of that approach shot back that they were demagoguing the issue.

"Call it a banana if you want to," Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said, but calling it "amnesty frankly distorts the debate and it's an unfair interpretation of it."

Still, the Senate went on record by a vote of 66-33 in favor of keeping provisions offering an eventual chance at citizenship to the undocumented who have been in the country more than two years.

That came after conservatives scored a victory, too, with an 83-16 vote to build the 370-mile, triple-layered fence and 500 miles of vehicle barriers.

The fence would "send the message to the world that our border is not open; our border is closed," said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who sponsored the fence amendment.

The fence would be built in areas "most often used by smugglers and illegal aliens," as determined by federal officials. Sessions estimated the cost at roughly $3.2 million per mile, more than $900 million for 300 miles.

The government already has built about 75 miles of fencing in the San Diego area, and near Tucson and Yuma, Ariz.

But even though conservatives cheered yesterday's win, the 370 or so miles is not even one-fifth of the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border -- far short of the kind of massive fence some anti-immigration advocates have talked about.

Also yesterday, the Senate voted 99-0 to block felons and people with three misdemeanor convictions from being eligible for legal status or citizenship.

Despite Senate progress, Bush continues to have trouble cracking opposition among House Republicans to the citizenship proposals. He sent in Rove to meet with them, but Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), who was there, said he didn't believe Rove had changed many minds.

King said he believes a majority of House Republicans want to stick with their enforcement-only approach approved in December -- which if true could all but doom compromise on a broader bill.

Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc.