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.
See my post #60.
And these Einsteins are our betters??
That is WAYYYYY more important than immigration/borders!!!!
Shaking my head in disbelief.
Thats right.. Keep putting it off so more and more can enter the country. Lets get as many as possible in this country before makeing any attempts to stop them.
Law enforcement, for the most part, tries to control crime such as burglary, murder, speeders, j-walkers, etc.
Why is it that illegal immigration is not treated as a crime?
Some pro-illegals on this board say that it would be fruitless to even attempt to arrest and deport those in this country illegally due to their numbers. Why?
I would dare say there are a hell of a lot more speeders in this country than illegals yet law enforcement still makes an attempt to enforce the law. But for whatever reason, enforcing immigration laws are impossible according to the anti America folks.
JMO
As far as saving it for election year, I am pondering that possibility myself and it better darn be in the works.
After all, with the utter confusion on the D-team, another scandal down the toilet, they are defeated and likely to get even crazier with SCOTUS nominee(s) coming up.
They will spend two or three weeks trying to "Rove" Bolton if he gets recess appointed. The D-team is utterly befuddled, disheveled and planless.
IF the GOP majority can get its own plan together first, possibly they can make it the '06 issue, with the democrats still replaying '04, '02 & '00 in their minds over and over again.
They D-team is right back on the ropes as before the gang of 14 fiasco. If our represenatives want to deliver a knockout, it's there for the taking on any forward looking issue.
I think there are alot of senators that could do better than Frist has done. We are still on defense in the Senate. Why? Frist is accountable for the answer.
To find stronger potential, maybe look due south of TN, or get on I-40 and take a 2 day drive west.
We ought to be pouring the coal to the locomotive. Instead we are diddlying around checking to make sure the crew does not have a cold.
Hey Freepers, think here. The last thing you should want to be brought up is an immigration bill. The only ones out there all allow illegals to eventually get U.S. citizenship. Bush's after 3 years, McCain's makes it easy to get U.S. citizenship, as does Cornyn and Kyle's version. The last thing we need is any of these routes to citizenship for illegals, and that's all that's being touted at the moment in the Senate. What we want is current laws enforced, businessmen who hire illegals fined or otherwise punished, no more anchor babies, our borders either fenced off or better patrolled, and illegals actually rounded up and sent back to wherever they came from. None of the current bills or ideas for bills would do this; just establish various types of guest worker programs w/eventual U.S. citizenship attached.
Frist knows that if he brings up Bush's version, it will not pass. Neither will the other versions out there. So he is stalling. Also, he doesn't want such a controversial topic for discussion brought up close to the 2006 mid-term elections, which is probably a politically good idea, as it's a topic that can create a lot of voting enemies, on both sides of the issue. So don't knock Frist. He is doing what is politically practical here, and frankly, if all they have to offer is Bush's plan that stinks, as do the other versions by the likes of McCain, etc., then the last thing I want to see is this subject brought up.
That makes pretty good sense and a refreshing reality check. Can it be forestalled any longer though than '08?
What if Frist, if forced to take adopt a position, were to come out and say exactly what you did, no new laws, enforce existing ones? Am I only dreaming? Sounds like a winner to me.
I just don't understand why there is such a huge disconnect between GOP leadership and pretty much the rest of the universe. Do they not understand that shutting down the Mexican invasion will make them the majority party for the next ten years?
Bottom line: no border security, no reelection in '06.
Enforce the laws on the books, dammit, and dump garbage laws like "Special Order 40" which protect illegals. That's the ticket.
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
Be Ever Vigilant!
Minutemen Patriots ~ Bump!
Frist until recently did not even list immigration as an issue to be discussed on his website. He and Bush are like two peas from the same pod on immigration--pathetic.
Let's face it, we may see some meaningful reform coming from the House when the heat of the next elections approaches, but we're unlikely to see anything really helpful on limiting immigration from the Senate. They (with very few exceptions) are much too elitist and internationalist in their "world view".
It's way past time to throw many of these Senatorial bums out, even if they write an "R" after their name.
Lifetime professional politicians have killed this country.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.