Posted on 04/13/2005 3:32:48 PM PDT by Conservative Firster
WASHINGTON, April 12 - Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, said on Tuesday that he was discouraging efforts to incorporate immigration and border security measures into the Senate version of a supplemental military spending bill, which would set the stage for showdowns among Congressional Republicans over immigration later this year.
Meeting with reporters, Dr. Frist, of Tennessee, said, "I am encouraging my colleagues to defer, to postpone discussions of immigration and to postpone that debate."
He said, however, that he was still negotiating with senators who seek to add immigration provisions to the military spending bill.
The House version of the bill includes provisions to block illegal immigrants from obtaining standard driver's licenses, to make it easier to reject requests for asylum and to override environmental rules blocking construction of a barrier along California's border with Mexico.
Senators from each party seek to add amendments that would make it easier for employers to hire more foreign workers.
The immigration debate reveals a fault line in the Republican Party, pitting cultural conservatives hostile to illegal immigrants against business groups that seek foreign laborers. President Bush has declared his support for a guest-worker program that would be open to currently illegal immigrants.
On Tuesday, Dr. Frist called immigration "a huge issue, an issue that we have to address this year, that the president put a proposal on the table last year - legislatively, we did not address it - I believe we have to address this year."
House Republicans, however, said that negotiators in a conference last year promised that the provisions would be included in some "must-pass" legislation, like the supplemental military spending bill. In negotiations with the Senate, House Republicans added, they were determined to keep the provisions in the final version of the bill.
Senate Democrats want to offer a number of amendments seeking to loosen immigration restrictions or expand foreign-workers programs. Dr. Frist and Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, were in talks on Tuesday night about whether to limit the number of immigration amendments to a handful, with some Democrats seeking assurances that the final bill would not include the House's immigration restrictions, aides said.
Senator Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire, and Senator Barbara A. Mikulski, Democrat of Maryland, said they planned to offer an amendment that would make more visas available for temporary seasonal workers, which they said would be needed by the hotel and fishing industries this summer.
Meanwhile, two Republican senators, John Cornyn of Texas and Jon Kyl of Arizona, advocating the tightening of border security along the lines of the House measures, said they also favored deferring the immigration debate in the Senate and enacting comprehensive measures that would also include some form of Mr. Bush's guest-worker program.
Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform and a conservative strategist working with the White House on its guest-worker proposal, predicted that each side would ultimately succeed only through comprehensive legislation that tightens border security and at the same time adds foreign workers to the labor pool. "Immigration reform and border security are not competitors; they are the same thing," he said.
He said he believed that the House Republican opponents of the guest-worker program would "get boxed out by a bipartisan coalition," and that Mr. Bush could achieve his guest-worker program mostly through strong Democratic support.
Why do you say that? Most of these amendments would liberalize immigration laws and open the floodgates even more, if that's possible. I'm sort of glad he wants to put them off, it'll give the opposition more time to build a coalition against any scamnesties. They do need to pass the Real ID Act now though...
If Sensenbrenner would back off on Real ID, the Senate would back off on attaching the compromise reform bill.
Children of Mexican illegals who end up in American big cities generally ruin our schools. Draw your own conclusions.
The Corporate Conservatives and Corporate Liberals are on the same boat with this tacit policy.
True...and - surprisingly - I'm not sure I can criticize them. Markets are now global and American companies must compete with foreign companies which use cheap labor. The best way to do that is to employ cheap labor.
I posted as I did to point out who's suffering from globalization - American workers - and who's benefitting - foreign workers.
There's also a very disturbing statistic; the wealthiest 5% of Americans, and especially the wealthiest 1%, have been increasing their wealth hugely over the last few years while the rest of us have been losing ground.
If that's the strategy, and it may be it's doomed to fail. There isn't going to be the kind of liberal guest worker program coming from the House you might get out of the Senate if it has to go through committees.
Those who favor open borders, which appears to be the entire Senate would have a much stronger shot attaching it as an amendment such as this one and taking their chances in Conference.
I am also curious if privatizing southern border patrol has ever been looked into..
Its interesting that Norquist mentions something about some democrats that would vote for the Bush plan. I guess that would be Hillary.
You may have seen the Wash Times article posted here overnight in which McCain is quoted as saying "we're ready", in reference to the new compromise bill that he and Kennedy wrote.
I imagine this will be the bill that gets attached. I wonder if I will get a chance to read it before it gets enacted
Kennedy and McCain's bill ain't going nowhere, at least I don't think so. That would get stripped in Conference since they want to get the military spending bill through and it would cause too much opposition in the House and hold it up. Besides, they know McCain's only pushing this because he's running for president and thinks sucking up to illegals will get him in. Kennedy's excuse is he's just an A/H.
I don't like Grover because he's a Muslim stalking horse, but he's right on this one.
Frist = Larst
amen
Politicians sure can waste time and money!
Delay= Kill
The longer they wait, the likely it is that some in this country (ourselves for the most part excluded) will let it slide.
Sorry Doc Frist, you just got the kiss off.
Great, it looks like we traded a spineless Republican Majority Leader (Lott) for another spineless Republican Majority Leader. He better hope he doesn't need my vote in '08. We need a Tom DeLay clone in the Senate.
...both parties have far too much at stake when it comes to whoring themselves to foreign interests. Democrats love the entitlement seeking third world types from Mexico, and Republicans are just as guilty, as they love the almost free labor from these countries.
I don't care what anyone says, we are being sold down the pike for the moneyed intersts in both parties.
Democrats play the race card at every opportunity, and Republicans play the religion card on their core constituents.
It's drawing near where a third party is a viable option.
It's a game being run by both parties.
Acute Fristoplastoids
Statistically true, and many factors to it. Higher immigration rates on the low end, decline of corporate inhibitions of board members of public companies rating their own worth with ever increasing salaries on the high end, fueled by the end of the corporate culture wherein the boardmember expects to serve the company for life.
Thank you for posting the article by Frank Gaffney---I have frontpagemagazine.com bookmarked, but I hadn't read that one.
What is most scary right now is that the March for Justice that FR was a sponsor for last weekend met up with a group that has Grover Norquist as its spokesman and member--
after reading this, I wonder what Grover and his "friends" will expect from this effort of cleaning up the judciary and getting Bush's nominees a vote----hm........
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