A 'chasm' in Congress deepens over immigration
WASHINGTON -- The congressional fight over the status of 11 million undocumented immigrants flared into even greater uncertainty yesterday, with a leading Democrat saying there is a ''chasm" between the House and Senate, and Republicans clashing over whether to embrace President Bush's approach on the issue.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, striving to repair the split in the Republican Party, said he wants the Senate to vote by Friday on a revised version of the proposal that has passed the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The committee's bill would enable undocumented immigrants to try to earn legal status after meeting several requirements, including payment of back taxes.
But in an indication of the difficult road ahead, Frist said he wants tighter restrictions on undocumented immigrants. ''That bill specifically gives a privileged path to citizenship for people who have broken the law," Frist said on CNN's ''Late Edition."
The committee measure faces an uncertain future on the Senate floor because it was passed with the votes of four Republicans, who joined with eight Democrats.
The majority of Republicans on the panel opposed the bill, and many Republicans are split in the full Senate as well.
Moreover, the House version is much tougher on undocumented immigrants. That bill focuses on enforcing immigration laws, including a fence along the Mexican border, and makes it a crime to provide social services to the immigrants.
''There's a chasm between the House and the Senate," Senator Richard Durbin said on CBS-TV's ''Face The Nation," adding that ''the House approach is unacceptable."
The issue also has divided the public. A poll released yesterday by the Associated Press and Ipsos found that 56 percent of those surveyed favor some type of legal status for the undocumented immigrants, with 41 percent opposed.
The debate on yesterday's news shows amounted to a round of public negotiating over the final version of the Senate bill.
The exchanges foreshadowed the difficulty that Republicans may face in reshaping the bill on the Senate floor in a way that could be supported by the House.
Senate Republicans are expected to try a number of methods, such as offering a substitute bill and a series of proposed amendments, in an effort to come up with a version acceptable to the House and Bush.
Frist said he wants the Senate legislation to be tougher on undocumented immigrants.
''I don't think we should legislate a track that gives a privileged status to people who broke the law," Frist said. ''If somebody is here and they're a felon -- or multiple misdemeanors -- or somebody who is not working, someone who has been here for a year . . . yes, I think they'd have to go back home."
Frist said the committee proposal would give undocumented immigrants a chance at citizenship ahead of the ''3 million people who are waiting today outside of our borders in a legal way."
But Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, said in a statement yesterday that Frist had mischaracterized the Judiciary Committee measure.
Kennedy said the committee bill ''puts undocumented immigrants who want to earn American citizenship at the back of the line -- after they've paid a big penalty, paid their back taxes, learned English, and worked consistently for six years."
President Bush has urged an approach closer to the measure passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee, saying the nation does not have to choose between being ''a welcoming society and being a lawful society."
Statements from two leading Republican presidential candidates provided insight into how complicated and unpredictable the issue has become.
''I don't think we ought to be passing anything that rewards illegal behavior or amnesty," said Senator George Allen of Virginia, speaking on ABC-TV's ''This Week" program. ''Is that different than the president's position? Apparently so, but I'm going to stick to the principle: First and foremost, we need to secure our borders. We are a country of immigrants, but we're also a country of laws, and we do need to enforce the rule of law."
But Allen said he wasn't proposing to send undocumented immigrants back home in the immediate future.
He said there should first be tougher border security.
Then, he said, ''over a period of time if somebody wants to become a legal citizen, they're going to have to return to their home country -- it may be over the next three, four, five years -- but then they're going to have to enter legally."
Such a timetable could put off the most difficult part of the debate until after the 2008 presidential election.
Another GOP presidential contender, Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, however, said on CNN that ''any type of immigration reform must include some type of pathway to a legal status."
Hagel disagreed with those who called the bill passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee an ''amnesty" program.
The committee bill enables undocumented immigrants to apply for work visas and then for citizenship after meeting requirements, including payment of back taxes, employment, and proof of having no criminal record.
''What came out of the Judiciary Committee, that's not amnesty," Hagel said. ''This is criteria that they have to comply with. . . . Many have been here over five years, now well into the fabric of communities, paying taxes, raising families, going to church on Sunday. And you think they're going to load up on a bus and go home? Come on. Let's get real with this."
Public demonstrations on the issue have become common in recent weeks, including a Saturday march over the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City that included about 10,000 immigrants and supporters of immigrant rights.
Material from Globe news services was included in this report. 