[ppi] [ppiindia] Senate Approves Immigration Bill

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25/AR2006052501548.html?referrer=email&referrer=email

Senate Approves Immigration Bill
Measure Faces Tough House Opposition

By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 26, 2006; Page A01 


The Senate yesterday approved legislation that would trigger the biggest 
changes to U.S. immigration policy in decades, by strengthening border 
security, establishing a guest-worker program, and providing the means for 
millions of illegal immigrants to stay in the country and possibly become 
citizens.

The product of a tenuous bipartisan coalition that faced tough conservative 
opposition, the measure calls for 370 miles of triple-layer fencing along the 
Mexican border, a complicated three-tiered system for determining who can stay 
and who must leave the country, and more jail cells for those awaiting 
deportation. It would declare English the country's national language, a 
gesture that many advocates found insulting but accepted in hopes of helping 
millions of undocumented workers achieve legal status.

But even as the Senate approved the bill 62 to 36, the measure's backers 
acknowledged that it faces formidable opposition in the House, whose political 
dynamics differ markedly from the Senate's. Numerous House members insist that 
Congress do nothing about legalizing immigrants until illegal border crossings 
are dramatically reduced.

Democrats and Republicans alike said a House-Senate accord will be nearly 
impossible without the vigorous involvement of President Bush, who favors an 
approach similar to the Senate's. The White House has already begun lobbying 
efforts, but it faces resistance from more than 200 House Republicans seeking 
reelection this fall, many in districts where the sentiment against illegal 
immigrants runs high.

"This is the most far-reaching immigration reform in our history," Sen. Edward 
M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), a leader of the Senate effort, said of the bill's 
passage. "It is a comprehensive and realistic attempt to solve the real-world 
problems that have festered for too long in our broken immigration system."

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Kennedy's partner in the effort, said more than 11 
million illegal immigrants "harvest our crops, tend our gardens, work in our 
restaurants and clean our houses" and added: "Some Americans believe we must 
find all these millions, round them up and send them back to the countries they 
came from. I don't know how you do that. And I don't know why you would want 
to."

But opponents called the bill fundamentally flawed and predicted that it will 
be completely rewritten by a House-Senate conference committee, which will try 
next month to craft a compromise version acceptable to both chambers.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) called the measure "a bad bill" that "puts more 
emphasis on amnesty than on border security."

The House in December passed a bill that dealt only with border and workplace 
enforcement. It would make illegal presence in the country a felony.

After mass demonstrations by immigrants in several cities and complaints by 
Roman Catholic officials -- plus Bush's recent televised speech calling for a 
comprehensive approach that would include pathways to legal status for 
undocumented aliens -- House GOP leaders signaled a willingness to modify their 
bill. But they said the Senate bill goes too far and would amount to "amnesty," 
a term that many dispute, for millions of foreigners who broke the law and 
jumped ahead of would-be immigrants waiting for legal entry.

A possible compromise, some lawmakers said, might start with tighter border 
security and then -- if there is measurable evidence the crackdown is working 
-- proceed to a mechanism for some illegal immigrants to achieve legal status. 
But lawmakers said it is far from clear whether such a plan would appeal to 
enough House Republicans, and enough Senate Democrats, to win passage in either 
chamber.

Further complicating matters is Speaker J. Dennis Hastert's policy of allowing 
votes on major issues only if most of the House's 231 Republicans back them. 
Theoretically, a compromise immigration bill could be supported by most of the 
House's Democrats and nearly half of its Republicans -- making up a clear 
majority in the 435-seat chamber -- only to be thwarted by Hastert's dictum.

If the Senate had embraced the same policy, the bill would have died. 
Twenty-three Republicans, 38 Democrats and one independent voted for the 
immigration bill; 32 Republicans and four Democrats voted against it. Sens. 
Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), Paul S. Sarbanes (D-Md.) and John W. Warner 
(R-Va.) voted for the bill. Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) voted against it.

The Senate bill calls for 1,000 new Border Patrol agents and thousands of 
National Guard troops to support them, plus 500 miles of vehicle barriers on 
the Mexican border. Several such provisions, added during two weeks of debate, 
were designed to appease Senate conservatives who threatened to kill the entire 
bill. But senators repeatedly rejected conservatives' bids to strip or weaken 
the provisions allowing legal status for undocumented immigrants.

The Senate bill would provide 200,000 new temporary guest-worker visas a year, 
while creating a separate guest-worker program for immigrant farm laborers. Its 
key compromise would divide the nation's estimated 11 million to 12 million 
illegal immigrants into three groups.

Those here five years or longer would be allowed to stay and apply for 
citizenship, provided they pay back taxes, learn English and have no serious 
criminal records. Those here two to five years would eventually have to return 
to another country and apply for a green card, which could allow their 
immediate return. The roughly 2 million immigrants who have been in the United 
States illegally for less than two years would be ordered home and be subject 
to deportation. Illegal immigrants convicted of a felony or three misdemeanors 
would be deported no matter how long they have been in the United States.

Critics on the left and right call the bill -- and especially its three-tiered 
formulation -- unworkable. The notion of apprehending and deporting 2 million 
illegal immigrants who have been in the United States less than two years 
defies logic, some say. They add that the task would be six times as great 
under the House proposal to empty the nation of all illegal immigrants.

Immigrants who have lived largely underground for more than five years might 
have trouble proving their length of stay, advocacy groups say, while those who 
arrived less than five years ago might try to convince officials that they have 
been here longer. The bill would obligate immigrants to prove their length of 
residency, and fraudulent claims would be a crime.

Those claiming five years of residency or more would have to prove they were 
employed for at least three years to qualify for a citizenship application.


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