Posted on 05/26/2006 7:43:26 AM PDT by SmithL
escribing it alternately as a friend on life support, a long shot and a poison pill, Bay Area lawmakers are not optimistic about a favorable compromise immigration bill.
The Senate's Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act hammered out of more than 200 amendments in the past two weeks now joins the House's Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act in a committee tasked with finding common ground.
"The conference is where the obituary for these bills has been written," said Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo.
Tauscher, like most House Democrats, favors the Senate package but said it appears to be on life support and is not likely to be reconciled with the House plan.
"The problem here is that the bills are very, very dissimilar," she said.
Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, concurred: "The votes are not there for a reconciliation. This is going to be an in-family fight in the Republican caucus."
Compromise is unlikely, agreed an aide for Richard Pombo, R-Tracy who voted for the House bill.
"A lot of provisions in their bill just will not fly on the House side," said Pombo press secretary Lucas Frances. "It tends to drift a little far into what many people consider amnesty."
Late Thursday, House Minority Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, urged President Bush to press GOP leaders for "bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform."
The issue that spurred a civilian border patrol, brought millions to protest in the streets, forged a coalition among business, labor and immigrant groups and inspired Bush's first address on a domestic issue could be politicked to death.
Pombo's office charges Democratic leaders with labeling the House border security plan as anti-immigrant. Democrats accuse the GOP of engineering an untenable compromise bill that will come to a vote just before November elections.
"The fact is that Republicans have played politics on this issue from the start, and I think that people need to be prepared for them to bring a bill out of conference committee that is filled with poison pills, designed to provoke Democratic opposition, so that when it fails, they can pin the blame on Democrats," said Barbara Lee, D-Oakland.
For some, killing the bill in conference is an increasingly attractive option.
"In some cases nothing might be better than a really bad bill," said Michele Waslin, director of immigration policy research for the National Council of La Raza.
La Raza and many immigrant advocacy groups like the elements of the Senate bill -- legalizing many undocumented immigrants, a larger visa pool, security at the border and in the workplace, and reducing the immigration backlog.
But they are concerned about the final form it took.
"It further penalizes and makes it quicker and easier to deport legal residents," Waslin said.
Others, including the Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition that was at the center of the large immigration rallies in April and May, have known for some time that Congress would not come through. They, too, have their eyes on the elections.
"Any kind of proposal that's put out this year is really going to be more election year pandering than legalization with rights," said Sheila Chung, director of the coalition. "Senators should know that immigrants are going to be watching how they vote in anticipation of the November election."
Republicans strongly support a secure border and some do not see an immigrant voter backlash.
"I can't agree with the pundits who think that the Republicans are going to suffer as much as the Democrats would like us to believe," said Thomas Del Beccaro, chairman of Contra Costa's Republican Central Committee and state chairman of county Republican associations.
An impervious border resonates strongly with the party's base, he said.
"The majority of Republicans believe that if you have strong oversight or compliance requirements like those in the House bill that people here now will start to trickle their way home to avoid detection."
Pombo voted for the House bill in December, saying he endorsed its border security measures. He recently said he disagreed with its provision that would make felons of illegal immigrants and those who help them. It called it physically impractical and politically unpalatable.
"The first thing that we need to do is ensure that there is strong border security," said Pombo aide Frances.
A Senate bill provision allowing some temporary agricultural workers to apply for permanent status could influence House Republicans from agricultural states.
"We see it quite simply as we have a choice of finding workers to help with the harvest or we outsource our food supply," said Jack King, a spokesman for the California Farm Bureau.
Even Democrats remain concerned about the details of a guest-worker program, said Miller.
"Without strong labor law enforcement and a minimum wage requirement," Miller said, "you will undermine wages and take jobs from Americans."
Tauscher said that the immigration bill could follow the path of other legislation that allowed GOP Senators to stake out moderate positions, House Republicans to take a hard line and then nothing was written into law.
"The proof is in a signing ceremony at the White House," she said.
She says this like this might be a bad thing. he he he... this is the only hope for the Republicans.
Just so people understand the agenda and strategy of the immigrant rights folks... Kennedy is in cahoots with them, and he crafted a bill that *undermines* the ability to deport and employment verification, etc. These folks wants all the illegals to be citizens ASAP and to have no consequences whatsoever and to keep the broken system so more can flood in. What they call good is bad and vice versa.
Someone mentioned yesterday that "Hastert is packing the committee with moderates." Can anyone add some light to this?
Pence's immigration plan is the only compromise acceptable
Pence's bill will do the following
1 Pass HR 4437
2 The border will be secured
3 Interior laws will be enforced
4 NO path to citizenship will be granted
5 Anchor baby citizenship will end
6 Removes all 10 to 12 million illegal aliens for United States
7 There will no longer be “undocumented workers”
8 Private Sector
9 Secures the border first.
10 We will control our border
Pence's bill only gives guest worker status after they have returned home and he gives them no path to citizenship.
What's to compromise? They're illegal. Pack them up and ship them back. Build a barrier to keep them from sneaking back across. Tell Fox to take a flying leap. Show the RINOs the door.
Time to loose the majority in the Senate. Would kill McCains presidential ambitions and focus the party on pleasing their base. Best we can hope for is for the House to walk away from committee and force this into the mid term elections. Lets let the voters have a say in immigration reform. The Senate is smoking dope to put this crap out. I noticed all the vocal Senate supporters are not up for election this year. Lets put their bill up for peer review by the electorate.
ping
"In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit."
AYN RAND
Worth repeating!
Compromise on immigratoin reform not likely
I haven't heard anything about Hastert, but here's what Tony Snow is saying.
House GOP expected to yield on legislation
By Stephen Dinan
May 26, 2006
The House is the only obstacle that stands between President Bush and a comprehensive immigration bill, and the White House yesterday predicted that the chamber's Republicans will give in. White House press secretary Tony Snow said House Republicans will want to pass border security badly enough to back down from the fight against what many consider amnesty for illegal aliens, knowing there is a "heavier political price for failing to act, than for acting."
"If you are a Republican member of Congress and you're concerned about illegal immigration, do you really want to say to your constituents: You know, I'm going to wait a couple of years before I take up the issue of people knowingly hiring illegal aliens, I want to wait a couple of years before I go ahead and try to identify who the illegal aliens are, I want to wait a couple of years before I start grappling with what to do with these 11 or 12 million people who are here illegally," Mr. Snow said.
A president always has the most influence in the backroom House-Senate negotiations, but yesterday, Mr. Snow wouldn't tip the administration's hand when asked how they would approach the conference committee.
[snip]
Gawd, Bush is just bound and determined to ignore the majority of pubbies, isn't he? But, then again, he neither has to run for re-election again, nor will he have to deal directly of the consequences of what he wants.
It sure looks that way, but I'll be calling and calling and calling the House reps even though it may not do any good.
Tony Snow has morphed into a pod person. I guess $$$ in his pocket speaks, so he now robotically says to hell with America.
Pence's "amnesty-lite" bill is a joke. Plus getting rid of the anchor babies will have to be a change in the Constitution by an amendment. He can't do it only with a bill in Congress. Don't fall for it.
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