Compromise Struck Last Evening; Deal Has Bush Support
WASHINGTON (By William Branigin and Jonathan Weisman, Washington Post) April 6, 2006 — A bipartisan group of senators today announced a "breakthrough" on controversial immigration legislation, as the Senate cleared the way for a vote on a compromise bill that would create a temporary-worker program and offer legal status to many of the nation's 12 million illegal immigrants.
Republican senators backing the compromise said President Bush supports the deal.
The compromise would give illegal immigrants who have been in the United States for more than five years a chance to legalize their status and, eventually, to become U.S. citizens if they pay a fine and meet a series of requirements. Other rules would apply to those who have been in the country less than five years but more than two years from the effective date of Jan. 7, 2004.
The compromise proposal, crafted by Republican senators Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Mel Martinez of Florida, was introduced last night and "has moved this issue off the dime," said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a co-sponsor of an immigration bill that was cast aside today.
Shortly before he spoke, the Senate voted effectively to kill the immigration bill that he and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) had introduced and that had passed the Senate Judiciary Committee with the support of its chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.). The Senate voted 60-39 against invoking cloture on the committee's bill, essentially filibustering it to death by refusing to cut off debate so that it could go to the Senate floor for a vote. The votes of at least 60 senators were needed to invoke cloture.
The Senate's action cleared the way for consideration of a bill submitted by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) that includes the Hagel-Martinez compromise.
Frist, Hagel and Martinez joined Specter, McCain, Kennedy and other senators in the bipartisan group that announced plans to go forward with their compromise, which they indicated could come to a vote tomorrow.
President Bush, in North Carolina for a speech on terrorism, applauded the senators efforts and urged them to pass a bill before leaving on vacation next week.
"I appreciate their understanding there needs to be a comprehensive immigration bill," Bush said. "I recognize there are still details to be worked out. I would encourage the members to work hard to get the bill done prior to the upcoming break."
Senate Republicans said last night they believed the compromise would garner enough bipartisan support to break through a parliamentary impasse that has stymied progress for two weeks on legislation to tighten border security and deal with the vast illegal immigrant population.
Under the agreement, the Senate would allow undocumented workers a path to lawful employment and citizenship if they could prove -- through work stubs, utility bills or other documents -- that they have been in the country for five years. To attain citizenship, those immigrants would have to pay a $2,000 penalty, back taxes, learn English, undergo a criminal background check and remain working for 11 years.
Those who have been here a shorter time would have to return to one of 16 designated ports of entry, such as El Paso, Tex., and apply for a new form of temporary work visa for low-skilled and unskilled workers. An additional provision would disqualify illegal immigrants who have been in the country less than two years.
In a surprise move last night, Frist went to the floor with a parliamentary motion to send the compromise to the Senate Judiciary Committee for ratification, then scheduled a vote for Friday to cut off debate on that motion.
A final breakthrough was held back yesterday by Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), who insisted that any substantive compromise wait until a showdown vote to cut off debate on the more lenient McCain-Kennedy measure passed by the committee last week. Reid and other Democratic leaders hoped to show they had 60 votes in support of that bill, but their effort failed.
If the compromise also fails, the Senate will leave Washington this weekend for a two-week spring recess and nothing to show for a fortnight of heated debate. That would allow organizers of a national protest Monday against a crackdown on illegal immigration to build pressure on lawmakers to support permitting virtually all illegal immigrants, no matter how long they have been in the United States, to stay and work toward citizenship.
There is virtual unanimity in the Senate that the immigration system is broken. Of the several immigration bills that have been drafted, all would beef up the Border Patrol with more agents and higher technology, strengthen rules against employing illegal immigrants and penalties for businesses that violate those rules and create tamper-proof identification cards to replace easily forged Social Security cards and other documents used to get jobs.
But senators have splintered on what to do with immigrants already in this country. One approach, championed by Sens. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) and Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), would demand that all undocumented workers return home and apply for a new two-year temporary work visa. Such visas could be renewed for a total of six work years, but workers would have to return to their home countries for a year before reapplying.
McCain maintains that approach is unrealistic, arguing that illegal immigrants would ignore the new visas and remain underground.
Other senators, including conservative Republican Johnny Isakson (Ga.) and moderate Democrat Ben Nelson (Neb.), favor the approach taken by the House in December, when it passed a bill that cracked down on illegal immigration without offering any new avenue for lawful employment or citizenship. A handful of Democrats, led by Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (N.D.), resolutely oppose the provision in the McCain-Kennedy bill that would offer about 400,000 work visas a year to low-skilled foreigners seeking access to a U.S. workplace.
In the middle of the factions is President Bush, who for years has called for major changes in immigration laws, including a guest-worker program, but to many members of Congress has been maddeningly vague about just what he wants.
Yesterday, Bush demanded "a bill that will help us secure our borders, a bill that will cause the people in the interior of this country to recognize and enforce the law, and a bill that will include a guest-worker provision that will enable us to more secure the border, will recognize that there are people here working hard for jobs Americans won't do, and a guest-worker provision that is not amnesty, one that provides for automatic citizenship."
