Immigration issues highlight split among Republicans
Friday, December 16, 2005
Printable FormatUSA TODAY
By Kathy Kiely
WASHINGTON -- A heated debate over how to control illegal immigration opened a rift among Republicans on Thursday as the House began considering legislation to impose tough new penalties on those who enter the USA illegally and those who hire them.
After a closed-door meeting to assuage concerns of lawmakers who were threatening to block the bill, the House began work on what Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., called "one of the most contentious, challenging and volatile issues that we will face as a nation."
The bill would make it a crime to live and work in the USA illegally. It also would allow military resources to be used to beef up border security and would require employers to check the validity of Social Security numbers presented by new hires. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., is hoping to add a provision to build 686 miles of fence along five sections of the U.S.-Mexican border where there are large numbers of illegal crossings.
Immigration is a top priority for President Bush. But because of the deep divisions in his party over immigration, the legislation's fate is uncertain.
Supporters of the bill said it would enhance national security by discouraging foreigners from entering illegally. "Our nation has lost control of its borders," said House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis.
Opponents called it heavy-handed and impossible to enforce because it does nothing about the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants already living and working in the country. "We are ignoring the elephant in the middle of the room," said Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.
The rift is unusual because it pits the majority of House Republicans against Bush. The president has said that any immigration bill should include a guest-worker program that would allow foreigners to enter the USA temporarily to work and would provide some way for illegal residents now working here to emerge from the shadows.
Sensenbrenner and other Republican skeptics see the president's plan as amnesty for people who entered the country illegally. They say that such a program would amount to rewarding lawbreakers.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and other GOP leaders blocked a vote on a bipartisan amendment by Flake and Reps. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., and Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., to add the guest-worker program to the immigration bill. "It would pass overwhelmingly," said Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah.
Kolbe said Republican leaders feared "the potential of tearing apart the Republican conference."
Democrats mocked the GOP's civil war. "The autocracy by Republican leadership has reached an all-time high when a Republican president can't get a vote on his own proposal," said Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla.
Opponents of the House bill argued that it is hypocritical to make criminals of illegal immigrants whom the nation will never deport. "We do not have the political will, nor will we commit the required resources," Gutierrez said.
Some Republicans who favor the president's guest-worker plan said they are supporting the House bill so the issue can move to the Senate, where they expect the guest-worker program to pass. "This is just a first step," Dreier said.
At a news conference Thursday, Sen. Barack Obama, an Illinois Democrat and son of a Kenyan immigrant, and Sen. Mel Martinez, a Florida Republican who arrived in the USA as a Cuban refugee, announced that they are working to promote a compromise. "We're trying to move the immigration debate towards the sensible center," Obama said.
Both senators said any bill must include a guest-worker program and measures to allow those now living here and working illegally to become legal. "It would be a mistake not to be comprehensive," Martinez said.