Yolanda Araujo holds a poster of a resident alien card during a rally in Los Angeles.
Posted on 04/12/2006 7:02:52 AM PDT by Dubya
WASHINGTON - After the widespread marches in support of illegal immigrants, top Republican congressional leaders retreated Tuesday from the portion of a House bill that would make illegal immigration or visa violation a felony.
"It remains our intent to produce a strong border security bill that will not make unlawful presence in the United States a felony," House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee said.
Their joint written statement came as GOP leaders seek a balance between easing public criticism of the bill and preserving the law-and-order approach to illegal immigration as demanded by many social conservatives.
A felony charge would subject illegal immigrants — there are about 12 million in the United States — to a year in jail before deportation. It would also apply to students, tourists and others who overstay their visas.
A wave of demonstrations in Houston and across the country in recent days drew a total of more than 1 million people, featuring aggressive criticism of the criminalization proposal.
The Bush administration has tried to get the violation reduced to a misdemeanor, which can carry a six-month jail sentence. But efforts to lower the penalty during the House debate in December were rejected by Democrats, who wanted to highlight the punitive nature of the bill, and by conservative Republicans who favored the tougher punishment.
Illegal immigration now is a civil court violation.
Rallies have stirred the pot The immigrant rights demonstrations have scrambled public opinion and promise to cause more political headaches for President Bush and Congress, political analysts said.
Republicans remain sharply divided between the House bill, which focused on tightening border security, and a bipartisan Senate measure that would combine more enforcement with temporary worker visas and an "earned" path to legalization and citizenship for illegal immigrants.
New public opinion polls appear to be moving in the direction of the Senate's comprehensive plan, which is more in line with President Bush's goals and would require immigrants to pay fines and meet other requirements before they could become citizens.
Republicans realized "that the House bill is doing them daily damage," said Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. "Whether that deepening of concern results in new and more moderate legislation remains to be seen."
At the same time, the demonstrations may have riled the GOP's conservative base, which favors the House version.
Analysts warn of backlash Some analysts said the rallies could prompt immigration restrictionists to redouble their efforts to weaken the president's resolve and derail the work in the Senate, which resumes in about two weeks.
"The conservative base of the party is now to the point of open rebellion (with Bush) and the demonstrations accelerate the trend," said Marshall Wittmann, a former Republican who is a senior analyst at the Democratic Leadership Council, which represents moderate Democrats.
Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, shares the view.
"The (pattern of) protest rallies, with people waving the Mexican flag and demanding legal rights for illegal aliens, solidifies support for protecting our borders and stopping any amnesty from passing our Congress," Culberson said.
New surveys show that a majority of Americans — 63 percent in an ABC News/Washington Post poll and 74 percent in a CBS poll — favor letting immigrants who have lived in the country to apply for legal status and eventual citizenship.
But voters also oppose what they call amnesty for illegal immigrants, David Winston, a Republican pollster, said.
"I think people are supportive of those individuals who are hard working, yet they are disappointed they have to deal with the fact that they came here illegally," Winston said.
gebe.martinez@chron.com
samantha.levine@chron.com
freakin' wimps, every last one of them.
Who EVER expected our congresscritters to have spines?
They're rolling over to accomodate wetbacks and Dimocrats.
What good do they think THAT will do them at election time?
Do they think this stupidity will win them the support of REPUBLICAN voters?
Yolanda Araujo holds a poster of a resident alien card during a rally in Los Angeles.
I don't care about the rest of the bill, but a physical barrier is of paramount importance. Until that is done, nothing else really matters.
A written statement by House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, did not say whether they would seek legislation subjecting illegal immigrants to misdemeanor prosecution or possibly a civil penalty such as a fine.
It was the Democrats that voted against removing the felony provision from the House bill before voting against the whole bill.
That way they can say out of one side of their mouth they voted for tougher laws on illegals, while saying out of the other side of their mouths that they voted against the punitive Republican bill.
Is the picture getting clearer now?
Quite frankly, I am not so concerned that terrorists will slip across our southern border.
In fact, to me that 'fear' is simply an excuse by those who are reluctant to come out and admit their fear that wave after wave of young ghetto-ized Mexican/Hispanics will suddenly become the majority in the US.
A terrorist, in fact, would probably be more prone to using the Canadian border since it is barely patrolled at all, and Canada previously had very lax entry rules for Muslims.
As for me,I am not afraid to admit that I refuse to see the US morph into a bilingual Spanish-English country, one where gangs of young Latino hoods feel empowered (like they are in Mexico), one where Mexicans vote only for Mexicans (like happened in Los Angeles), and one where the new Latino majority will change our 200-year old Eurocentric laws and culture to suit their third world culture.
THAT's what I fear, not the possibility that some terrorist will cross the southern border.
And if that occurs, America will cease to be what it has been for some 230 years, a beacon of law-abiding hope for the truly oppressed all over the world.
Democrats: The party of treason
Republicans: The party of cowardice
We need another Reagan revolution.
Yep.
Except that Reagan started all this with the first amnesty.
And he promised to strengthen our borders.
He shares some of the blame.
BS
What you say is true. Reagan did cave in on a number of important issues.
But he's still the President that I wish we had now.
MR. PRESIDENT, I'M HEADED TO MEXICO
Dear President Bush:
I'm about to plan a little trip with my family and extended family, and I would like to ask you to assist me. I'm going to walk across the border from the U.S. into Mexico, and I need to make a few arrangements. I know you can help with this.
I plan to skip all the legal stuff like visas, passports, immigration quotas and laws. I'm sure they handle those things the same way you do here.
So, would you mind telling your buddy, President Vicente Fox, that I'm on my way over? Please let him know that I will be expecting the following:
1. Free medical care for my entire family.
2. English-speaking government bureaucrats for all services I might need, whether I use them or not.
3. All government forms need to be printed in English.
4. I want my kids to be taught by English-speaking teachers.
5. Schools need to include classes on American culture and history.
6. I want my kids to see the American flag flying on the top of the flag pole at their school with the Mexican flag flying lower down.
7. Please plan to feed my kids at school for both breakfast and lunch.
8. I will need a local Mexican driver's license so I can get easy access to government services.
9. I do not plan to have any car insurance, and I won't make any effort to learn local traffic laws.
10. In case one of the Mexican police officers does not get the memo from Pres. Fox to leave me alone, please be sure that all police officers speak English.
11. I plan to fly the U.S. flag from my house top, put flag decals on my car, and have a gigantic celebration on July 4th. I do not want any complaints or negative comments from the locals.
12. I would also like to have a nice job without paying any taxes, and don't enforce any labor laws or tax laws.
13. Please tell all the people in the country to be extremely nice and never say a critical word about me, or about the strain I might place on the economy.
I know this is an easy request because you already do all these things for all the people who come to the U.S. from Mexico. I am sure that Pres. Fox won't mind returning the favor if you ask him nicely.
However, if he gives you any trouble, just invite him to go quail hunting with your V.P.
Thank you so much for your kind help.
Sincerely,
Do they think stupidity will win them votes?
No, they think there are enough illegal votes to get them elected, I am afraid they are going to be facing a rude awakening come Nov.
With "leaders" like these, who needs enemies?
Or more to the point, why bother voting GOP?
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