Bush pushes to end immigration logjam

WASHINGTON -- Citing progress in combating illegal immigration, President Bush called on Congress yesterday to help him overhaul the nation's immigration laws by the end of this year, as he seeks to inject momentum into a stalled congressional debate.

With the White House scheduling a new round of meetings with Republicans and Democrats to finish work on a comprehensive bill, Bush traveled to Yuma, Ariz. -- where a high-tech security fence is under construction along the US border with Mexico -- to highlight his administration's efforts to deter illegal border crossings.

The president said he plans intensive talks with lawmakers to resolve perhaps the most contentious aspect of the debate: what to do about the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants who are now living in the United States.

"We're working closely with Republicans and Democrats to find a practical answer that lies between granting automatic citizenship to every illegal immigrant and deporting every illegal immigrant," Bush said after touring the construction site.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat who is leading Senate efforts to draft an immigration bill, said the president's remarks were encouraging.

Despite a logjam in Congress, "There is a lot of common ground, especially in the need to strengthen our borders and enforce our laws, though important differences remain to be resolved," Kennedy said.

But there are lingering questions about what provisions would realistically make it into a bill that a divided Congress could pass -- and that the president would be prepared to endorse.

The Bush administration set off alarms among immigrants' rights groups in recent weeks when an internal White House presentation outlining a set of stricter immigration principles was leaked to the media.

Those principles would make it more difficult for families of immigrants to move to the United States, would subject undocumented immigrants to fees and fines of $20,000 or more and require that they leave the country before they could reenter and gain legal status.

The White House has said that the presentation simply reflected ideas on the table rather than immoveable principles. But supporters of a get-tough approach to immigration reform say the administration seems to be backing away from one of its key positions: offering undocumented immigrants already in the United States a chance to become citizens.

Representative John Shadegg, an Arizona Republican who joined Bush in Yuma yesterday, said he believes the president "is moving in [the] direction" of denying citizenship to those who came to the country illegally.

Shadegg said Democratic proposals, including paths to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, "can't win the votes of a significant number -- much less a majority -- of congressional Republicans, and cannot pass Congress."

But the president's rhetoric seemed to point in a different direction, one more friendly to the Democrats, and the shifting messages from the White House has some observers wondering about Bush's immigration plan.

"I don't know what to make of it," said Ali Noorani, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition . "I'm not sure the White House really knows what it wants to do. They're sort of reading the tea leaves, and I'm not sure what kind of tea they're drinking."

In working on immigration reform, Bush wants to salvage a centerpiece of his domestic agenda, and he is delving more deeply into the issue at a critical time. As the 2008 presidential election heats up, complicating any legislative action, Democrats in Congress have made little progress overhauling the nation's immigration laws.

In the Senate, which passed an immigration bill that Bush supported last year, Kennedy has lost his former partner on the legislation, Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican who is running for president. Senate Democrats say they are not sure which proposal they will vote for when they take up the immigration debate next month.

In the House, a bipartisan bill has been filed, but Democrats are bracing for massive defections among party members from districts where constituents favor a get-tough approach to immigration enforcement. That means any reform bill will need strong Republican support to pass, but the GOP's conservative base adamantly rejects any proposals that would allow undocumented immigrants to become citizens.

Still, the Iraq war -- and the current stand-off between the White House and Congress over funding -- has overshadowed most legislative action.

And relations between the executive and legislative branches have been further strained by the administration's firing of eight US attorneys, a scandal that has sparked congressional probes and calls for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign.

Though the heated rhetoric could get in the way of compromise on any contentious issues, the president insisted yesterday that progress can be made on immigration.

"I think the atmosphere up there is good right now," Bush said. "I think people genuinely want to come together and put a good bill together."

Bush also scolded conservatives who have demanded the expulsion of all undocumented immigrants.