Carlos Guerra: The immigration smoke-and-mirrors show is coming to a head

MySA.com ^ | 05/25/2006 | Carlos Guerra

[fgoodwin]

Carlos Guerra: The immigration smoke-and-mirrors show is coming to a head

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/columnists/cguerra/stories/MYSA052506.01B.guerra.1cbd3e7a.html

http://tinyurl.com/gsbal

Web Posted: 05/25/2006 12:00 AM CDT San Antonio Express-News

With elections less than six months off, chances that the U.S. House and Senate will agree on the "comprehensive immigration reform bill" that President Bush promised are iffy, at best.

This isn't to say that some sort of immigration bill won't pass. But with Republicans deeply divided over the issue, while competing pressure groups mount grass-roots campaigns that are clogging phone systems and e-mail servers, it won't be anything decisive.

It is far more likely to be a showy measure that can be spun as a victory for the general elections, but which won't deliver.

In both House and Senate bills, evidence of equivocation is ample.

Last year, the House passed an angry bill that focuses on enforcement by walling off 700 miles of the 1,951-mile Mexican border, expanding the Border Patrol's ranks, beefing up border-zone interdictions and conducting massive arrests and deportations.

The Senate version also strengthens border enforcement with half as much fencing but 2,400 additional Border Patrol agents per year through 2011.

And unlike House Bill 4437, which would make felons of the estimated 12 million immigrants here illegally and anyone who helps them, the Senate bill only stiffens penalties for alien smugglers and exempts humanitarian assistance providers.

Of course, both bills all but ignore that 45 percent of the "illegals" entered the United States legally, with visas and border-crossing cards, and simply stayed beyond their allotted times.

Nor does either bill fund the detention beds that will be needed for current detainees, much less all those new arrestees.

In April, an Office of Homeland Security Inspector General's audit reported that "of the 774,112 illegal aliens apprehended during the past three years, 280,987 (36 percent) were released largely due to the lack of personnel, bed space and funding needed."

In other words, just to handle those apprehended under today's supposedly weak laws — and truly end the practice of "catch-and-release" — would require an additional 36,000 detention-center beds.

And guess what? The tough House voted for 4,870 new beds next year, while the Senate voted to build 20,000!

But the heart of this reform, advocates say, is work-site enforcement, mandatory employee verification and employer sanctions.

Of course, such measures have been in place since 1986, but have never been really enforced. Work-site raids have been decreasing since shortly after the policy was implemented. Verifying employees' eligibility, meanwhile, has been stymied because the current verification system is available in only 12 states and is virtually voluntary. And nationally in 2004 — the latest numbers available — only three employers were notified that they might be fined.

What will change?

The House bill mandates that employers verify their workers' status through a new national database — within three to six years . The Senate bill requires verification within 18 months, and fines bosses up to $20,000 per illegal worker. But if employers don't use the new verification system, they would face fines of only $600.

Had I the space, I could list many more reasons why we shouldn't expect real reform. This is really about providing a wedge issue for the fall elections that will distract the public's attention away from escalating fuel costs, an economy stagnant for most and an increasingly ugly war in Iraq.

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To contact Carlos Guerra, call (210) 250-3545 or e-mail cguerra@express-news.net

[Enterprise]

This country can mandate the busing of millions of school students each day but can't afford to transport aliens. Here's a suggestion: Stop busing students. Take the money from that stupid program and build a massive tent detention center next to the Mexican border. Invite those who are housed in the tent city to go back to Mexico any time they want. But if they come back to this country, they go to a hard time camp.