Posted on 07/15/2005 3:32:25 PM PDT by Conservative Firster
WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Thursday that immigration reform is probably off the table for this year, a prediction that threw cold water on the methodical efforts of Sen. John Cornyn to pass a bill this fall.
"The overall guest worker-immigration legislation will come in this Congress (which ends in late 2006). It won't be this summer, I can't promise it will be in the fall," said Frist, R-Tenn. "More likely, it will be in the early part of next year, but within the next 12 months."
Cornyn, R-Texas., said he was unaware of Frist's comments and found them disturbing. "I hope that isn't right," said Cornyn, who is likely to unveil his proposal, including a guest worker program, next week with his co-author, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.
"My impression was that he wanted to do something sooner rather than later," Cornyn said. "I need to talk to him."
'Comprehensive approach'
Frist's comments came during a conference call on border security measures with reporters that coincided with the Senate's debate on the 2006 homeland security spending bill.
Frist said one reason for taking time with the issue was that the Senate's Republican leadership was aiming at a "comprehensive approach" on the idea of guest workers and immigration reform to attract bipartisan support. He said the leadership would "look at what the president has (proposed) and look at individual initiatives."
The majority leader also said he had asked the Government Accountability Office, Congress' watchdog agency, to analyze how many illegal immigrants die annually trying to enter the United States.
"We must protect our nation from those who seek to enter it illegally, but we also have a moral obligation to protect all who set foot on our soil from physical harm," he said.
The delay on immigration legislation this year is largely due to the upcoming Supreme Court confirmation hearings to replace the retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
The confirmation proceedings occur in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will also be partly responsible for handling an immigration bill.
Once the committee acts, the full Senate must vote on the nominee. The intensity of that debate is expected to consume a good deal of the Senate's schedule and drastically reduce the number of other bills in the Senate this year.
Concern, disappointment
Still, the news from Frist, who is in charge of scheduling which legislation hits the floor, shocked lawmakers who have spent months crafting immigration proposals.
One of them is Sen. John McCain, a Republican from Arizona who introduced a bill in May with Massachusetts Democrat Ted Kennedy.
The Judiciary Committee is expected to hold a hearing on that measure, as well as the Cornyn-Kyl bill, this month.
"I am very concerned and very disappointed," said McCain, whose legislation would allow illegal immigrants to earn U.S. citizenship. "It's not helpful. More and more bad things happen. There is greater risk for terrorists crossing our borders. There are greater health care and law enforcement costs."
McCain said he hopes the drumbeat of concerns will keep the pressure on Frist to take up an immigration bill.
Cornyn, who chairs the Judiciary Committee's immigration subcommittee, and Kyl, who chairs the homeland security subcommittee, have held a half-dozen hearings on the immigration issue over the past few months.
Their bill would create a guest worker program that mirrors Bush's preference for a system that lets immigrants work here for three years before having to return to their home countries.
It also would include plans for stronger border enforcement and the phasing-in of requirements for all U.S. employers to verify the immigration status of their employees.
Last overhaul took 5 years
But that bill, as well as the McCain-Kennedy measure, will have a tough time in 2006. All of the House and one-third of the Senate will be up for election.
Joseph Vail, director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Houston Law Center, said Congress has historically taken a long time to act on immigration.
Lawmakers spent about five years crafting the last immigration overhaul bill, which passed in 1986.
"We must protect our nation from those who seek to enter it illegally, but we also have a moral obligation to protect all who set foot on our soil from physical harm," he said."
Exactly WTF does that mean, Bill?
You forgot, they got to the number one item on every Americans priority list, bankruptcy reform.
They will not get to immigration next year because of the election. If I remember correctly, they put this on the back burner prior to the last election. They knew it would cost 'em big time.
It means that he it trying to have it both ways, at the same time, and make everybody happy.
Just call him Lucky Pierre.
That's true. Quick action will have to wait for the Ciceros to finish their orations. It's funny that with all the senior statesmen in the Senate there isn't one with what might be called leadership qualities.
Yea what's the rush? Why not wait til we have another 9/11 due to terrorists coming across our southern border.
Maybe not, but he's a perfect follower.
He gets his marching orders from the White House and carries them out to the letter!
This man is the majority leader in national government and he is just now wondering how many illegals come here annually?
I'm not falling for this. He knows darn well there are 30 million here and millions have come in since Bush's "do the jobs America won't do."
They are all in this together. Protecting each other all the way, until they get a overwhelming majority of Mexicans here, and American citizens are cast aside. The Mexicans are not here for a better life, my friend, they are here for "our" life, and our politicians will see that they succeed.
This is a top priority issue. I also would like to know what the heck they will be doing.
Even if the Senate was going to get to immigration next week, that would be the effective way to do it.
That is a true scandal. It's almost enough to make one want to give up on politics altogether.
Looks like a have a busy next year too!! I know for sure that I'll need to get my hair and my nails done.
WIMPS!!!!!!!!!!!
80% of 'legal' Americans want something done about the criminals that sneak across the border...And Frist says he and the Senate won't get to it this year...
I don't know if he can be impeached for dereliction of duty, but send a petition...I'll be the first to sign it...
What pray tell, does he mean by that? IF he is REALLY concerned about OUR safety then close the doggone borders!!!
They are stalling because they KNOW how irate Americans are. I guess the idiots think we will forget about it by the end of 2006. It will allow another million illegals to enter the country, and we will NEVER get them out of here.
Your #38. You're right. The "reform" the're looking at are various forms of amnesty. All thats needed is just to rigorously enforce the laws already on the books.
More than likely No energy bill and now this
LMAO ... You get the gubamint you pay for.
Well, amnesty only in the sense that we forget that you came into the country illegally. But it just seems illogical to me to expect someone who has already broken the law as their first act upon entering the country to abide by the "time-limited worker card" that they will be issued. It makes as much sense as passing gun control legislation to reduce crime.....he's already a criminal....making the firearm illegal isn't going to stop the crime from occurring!
Tammy Bruce today on Laura Ingraham, really gave a good overview of the state of racist affairs in Mexico and why so many of the Indian parentage Mexicans are coming over the border, while those of the higher class Caucasian Spanish extraction stay to run the country. It seems that the later are refusing to hire the former requiring them to leave or starve.
It also seems we are enabling Fox to allow these racist policies to continue.
Duh? S'matter with these dimwits? They can only do one thing at a time? Who dresses these great thinkers and leaders? Certainly not themselves.
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