Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. (left), and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.,
are working together on an immigration plan.
Posted on 05/12/2005 8:46:37 AM PDT by Scenic Sounds
Sweeping measures face an uphill fight
WASHINGTON – Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate will introduce legislation today that could grant legal status to an estimated 10 million to 12 million illegal immigrants now in the United States.
The bills, which would dwarf previous programs to provide legal status to foreign workers, would give illegal immigrants work permits and the opportunity to apply for permanent residence and eventually citizenship once they pay a fine and fees.
The legislation is certain to raise the temperature of a national debate already simmering over the Minuteman Project's volunteer border patrols and just-passed legislation to deny driver licenses to undocumented immigrants.
The legislation is expected to face an uphill fight in Congress. But it would be a landmark event if enacted.
Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and John McCain, R-Ariz., will introduce the bill in the Senate. In the House, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., will team with Arizona Republicans Jeff Flake and Jim Kolbe to introduce the measure.
The sponsors have scheduled a news conference today to kick off a publicity campaign. It will be coordinated with immigrant advocates and church groups as well as business and farming organizations that want to stabilize their work forces.
Flake said the bills seek to bring immigration law in line with job markets that have become increasingly dependent on illegal immigrants because legal workers aren't filling the jobs.
"The bottom line is we're going to have a need for foreign workers in the foreseeable future," Flake said.
He said Congress has not provided federal officials with the tools to enforce the law because it doesn't want to cut off the flow of workers.
"We can make it legal through some mechanism or we can keep it illegal and keep on pretending we are going to enforce it," he said.
While details are still being negotiated, according to the Denver Post, major provisions include:
After a criminal background check and medical examination, most of the illegal immigrants now in the country would be allowed to apply for a new visa legalizing their status. They would have to pay $2,000 in fines and processing fees for having entered the country illegally. After six years, these workers and their families could apply for permanent residency.
A guest-worker program would allow employers to bring in 400,000 foreign workers in its first year. After that, the cap would be adjusted annually based on demand. The cap could change no more than a fixed percentage a year, sources said, and those workers could eventually apply to permanently reside in the United States.
A new system would be designed to require employers to electronically verify whether their workers are in the country legally and eligible to work. Fines for employers caught hiring illegal workers would double.
"Once a program is in place for employers to get workers, there's no excuse for them not to cooperate," Flake said. "You get a good program and you enforce the heck out of it."
But Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, said the program must provide enough foreign workers to meet labor needs and enough enforcement to win the support of a public increasingly skeptical about the government's ability to manage immigration.
"Any proposal will rise or fall on whether the legal channels are wide enough and the enforcement effective enough," Sharry said. "In the past it was, 'Let's keep legal channels small, but let's not enforce them too much.' "
The bills' advocates hope that the $2,000 fine will soften the angry reaction that has accompanied past amnesties, such as the sweeping 1986 measure that gave legal status to 2.7 million immigrants, most of them Mexican.
Almost 20 years later, the illegal immigrant population is expanding by nearly 500,000 people a year, according to Pew Hispanic Center demographer Jeffrey Passell.
In 1986, amnesty meant a green card for immigrants who were eligible, either because they had lived in the United States several years or – in a major concession to California farmers – because they had worked 90 days in the fields.
A fight to update that definition has already broken out.
"An amnesty is an unconditional pardon for a breach of law," Flake said.
"That's semantics," said Jack Martin of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which wants to clamp down on illegal immigration. "Any program that gives legal status to people who entered the country illegally or have stayed here illegally after being admitted is an amnesty."
Both sides will eagerly await reaction from President Bush, who last year proposed a program to provide temporary legal status for undocumented workers already here and to match "willing workers" from around the world with "willing employers."
Although the president said he rejected amnesty, he left open the possibility that some of the workers could get in line for a green card. That coveted document confers permanent residence status and the eventual opportunity to apply for citizenship.
Yesterday, White House spokeswoman Maria Tamburri responded carefully to a question about the Kennedy-McCain bill.
"The president will work with Congress on enacting legislation that is consistent with the principles he announced last year," she said.
Mark Krikorian, who directs the Center for Immigration Studies, said the White House was stunned at many conservatives' furious reaction at Bush's proposal.
Krikorian, whose organization favors restrictive immigration policies, predicted that Bush will wait to gauge public reaction to the legislation before announcing his position on it.
"There is already a match burning because of the Minuteman program," he said, referring to the volunteer patrols in Arizona near the Mexican border. "They should be afraid that this would throw gas on the fire."
You nailed that one. $2000 a year would be the American dream.
~ping~
I just want to throw up!
Which is yet another good reason to get conservative judges approved.
Unfortunately, hororable Bostonians are in the distinct minority.
OK. I have to agree that there is no reason we need to make it easy for illegal immigrants to live here.
Darn, that is the first time I have ever seen "honorable" and "Bostonians" used in the same sentence. Color me surprised.
I'm not that optimistic, but it couldn't hurt to try it.
Just please find a toilet first.
By means of a juked up sham "process" periodically proclaiming them all legal, at say a 5 million or so clip, and then insisting that none of this amounts to an amnesty.
Crack down now on employers of illegal aliens, cut off absolutely all benefits to illegal aliens, and start deporting the ones already here as discovered.
All of them -- OUT.
And, honest-to-gosh, McCain, with apparently a straight face, told a radio show caller that this bill will stop illegal immigration.
Seventy percent of the people in our state voted to re-elect this guy.
I didn't.
Amen. I emailed this to the pres as my "dream" immigration bill.
No sale.
You know I'd almost accept another 10 to 12 million illegals IF Mexico would take McCain AND Kennedy!
Those are gov't figures, and as such should be taken with a grain of salt. It's usually pretty safe to multiply any figure by 3 that the gov't deems in their best interest to keep low. ...for public consumption.
So I'd put that figure at closer to 30 million.
The only thing we can do in the long run is legalize them.
No, the best thing we can do is to cut off all their social freebies and prosecute employers who hire them. Millions of them would then head back to their homeland.
So much for the 65,000 cap on H1B's - a temprary visa. Now we will have 400,000 employment based permanent residency visas instead?
YES!!!!
I have the perfect idea for a protest on this illegal immigration. We get a thousand Freeprs to go to DC and literally throw up in front of the Immigration Offices.
Nobody would get arrested.
He can make a straight face? It must have taken him a great deal of effort. (He must have had Captain Quieeg's Stainless Steel Comfort Balls clicking away in both hands.)
It will take getting Senator Quislings booted from office to cause the rest of our congress critters to "see the light."
There are too damned many Spanish radio and TV stations as it is. Just exactly how does this facilitate assimilation? They don't, because they appeal to illegals who do not assimilate, have little interest in learning english, and prefer to live with other illegals.
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