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."
The difference between the Kennedy McCain bill and what the president wants (per FNC) is that Kennedy MccCain's guest program inclues convertability of the worker visa to a permanent visa.
This is just an effort to add more democrats.
McCain is an IDIOT. This kills his presidential bid. Seriously he has been played and played for a first class fool. He is too blind to realise that hitlary has just effectivly checkmatted him on immigration.
Absolutely HELL NO.
CONSTITUTION PARTY
This is unreal.
FIRST build a real security fence, and THEN come talk to us about other options.
But the whores that be instead want to sell out our country to the highest bidder. It's long past time to kick these Traitorous idiots out.
Our political leaders are all whores, so they figure we'll shut up like whores if the illegals just pay $2,000 for citizenship. (This is MUCH less than what legal immigrants pay in all of their fees.)
It's long past time to kick these Traitorous idiots out.
Quisling: A word Norwegians are not very proud of having given to the world: it derives from Vidkun Quisling (1887-1945), a Norwegian politician who collaborated with the Nazis during World War II. He established his name as a synonym for "traitor", someone who collaborates with the invaders of his country, especially by serving in a puppet government. Quisling was found guilty of high treason in 1945, and was executed by firing squad on the 24th October 1945.
bump that
Rush is reading about this bill now.
Good point. I don't think this invalidates the arguments in favor of the legislation, but it's something that has to be considered. The INS gets backed up enough as it is.
That is NOT going to go on for long. Our judges will NEVER permit a permanent "slave class" in the USA. This is what is going to happen instead, when the judiciary eventually takes up this case.
(And our leaders will pretend to be SHOCKED! at this outcome, which they are doing all they can to see happens.)
Fernando Ortiz was a ‘landscape engineer’ on Long Island who had demanded to be able to vote, on the basis that he had been paying state and federal taxes for ten years. Actually, he had been stopped from casting a ballot by a poll watcher who had suspected his citizenship status, and (illegally, as it turned out) demanded proof of his identity and legal qualification to vote. Ortiz had won a multi-million dollar settlement against the Republican Party of New York in the subsequent “racial profiling and ethnic intimidation” civil suit, but he did not stop there.
Instead, with massive support from the ACLU and various Hispanic “immigrants rights” foundations, he had pressed his demand to be allowed to vote all the way to the Supreme Court…and he won. The Supreme Court, in its famous 5-4 decision, ruled that negligence in securing America’s borders against illegal immigration on the part of the federal government, could not be held against “undocumented workers who played by the rules and paid their taxes,” once they were established in America—legally or not. The federal government had not taken reasonable efforts to secure the border, and had not pursued "undocumented workers" in the USA. Instead, it openly permitted them most of the benefits of citizenship, and it collected their taxes. "No taxation without representation!" was the cry heard all the way to the Supreme Court. The State of New York had then sleep-walked through an aimless and desultory case for denying the vote—and citizenship—to “undocumented workers.”
Following Ortiz v. New York, a stunned America woke up to discover that there were not only an amazing twenty-two million illegal aliens hiding in plain sight across the land, but that eight million of them immediately qualified to vote. In a nation split 50-50 down party and ideological lines, these eight million new voters were recognized to be the certain majority-makers in future elections, and both parties set record lows for cravenness in pandering to their “needs.” Chief among their “needs” were liberal new family reunification laws, and these instant citizens—illegal aliens only a year before—began bringing the remainders of their families to the USA. Legally.
Overnight, wavering Democrat states became locks, and swing states with large Hispanic populations went solidly “blue.” The result was the recent election which had brought Gobernador Deleon to power in Nuevo Mexico, and had also brought radical Democrats to power in the White House and both houses of congress.
Thus had come the political tsunami which swept all before it, a tidal wave triggered by an undocumented lawn maintenance worker named Fernando Ortiz.
Something like this legislation is going to be passed. Rather than completely opposing it, it might be best to try get more teeth in it.
ping
In principle, you are correct. That's what's depressing. We pretty much have to accept the situation. 8 to 10 million people are just too many to punish or deport. The only thing we can do in the long run is legalize them. We need to do it wisely, though, not another blanket amnesty like we've had in the past with no change in the current situation of lax border enforcement.
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