Washington – With the U.S. Senate starting debate soon on immigration reform, President Bush pushed Thursday for a program to allow illegal immigrants to work legally in the country.
“Part of enforcing our borders is to have a guest-worker program that encourages people to register their presence so that we know who they are and says to them, ‘If you’re doing a job an American won’t do, you’re welcome here for a period of time to do that job,”‘ Bush said during a meeting with representatives of groups that support the idea, including Denver Roman Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput.
The president’s latest push came as it appeared increasingly likely that the bill the Senate will consider next week will contain a guest-worker provision, setting up a future collision with House Republicans who reject the proposal.
The Senate’s Judiciary Committee has reached tentative agreement on a guest-worker plan opposed by U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo and others. No consensus was reached in earlier talks between Tancredo, R-Colo., and committee chairman Arlen Specter, a long-shot effort to find common ground.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., plans to set aside immigration legislation he introduced without the guest-worker plan and let the Senate vote on the committee’s bill if it can be finished early next week, his spokeswoman Amy Call said.
Some on both sides of the issue predict Senate approval of a guest-worker plan.
“I think the whole Senate will cheerfully pass something close to what the president wants,” said Grover Norquist, a liaison between Bush and Congress.
Tancredo, of Littleton, agrees.
“I think the Senate will pass some legislation, and it will have a guest-worker provision in it. I don’t think they can get a bill out of the Senate without that.”
But no one calls Senate passage a certainty. It’s likely there will be numerous amendments offered in an attempt to strip out a guest-worker plan and other controversial elements.
If it appears there will not be enough agreement in the Senate to pass legislation, Frist might block a vote, which could delay action on the immigration issue until after the fall election.
Even if a bill with guest- worker language passed the Senate, it would face major hurdles. The Senate bill would have to be merged with one passed by the House in December. The House bill would beef up border security and toughen immigration laws but does not have a guest- worker provision.
The author of the House bill, Judiciary Committee chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., would exert pressure to have guest-worker provisions stripped out in conference committee, leaving only a border- security bill, Tancredo said.
That could be tough to accomplish. Congressional leaders – who are the president’s allies – get to choose the lawmakers who craft that final bill. That would set up a confrontation with Republicans in the House who have vowed to vote against any legislation with guest- worker language in it.
The push to pass a bill that could be signed into law was so strong that Specter, R-Pa. – known for his pragmatism – reached out to Tancredo more than two weeks ago.
“His purpose was trying to see where we were on it,” Tancredo said. “We explained to the folks that came over (that) I can’t imagine there’s a way to compromise on it.”
Specter’s Judiciary Committee will meet Monday in an effort to quickly approve immigration- reform legislation that includes a guest-worker plan and possibly a path to citizenship for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants already in the country.
Though Frist introduced his own bill last week, focusing solely on border security, that was done to get the issue on the debate calender, said Call, his spokeswoman. Frist intends to substitute in the Judiciary Committee bill if it’s finished in time, she said.
Debate is scheduled to start Tuesday and last two weeks.
If the committee doesn’t finish the bill in time for debate, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., plans to try to block debate on the Frist bill with a filibuster, Reid spokesman Jim Manley said.
“It’s going to be a messy fight,” said Tamar Jacoby, research fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute for Policy Research in New York.
Lobbying on both sides continues. Each day this week, Tancredo has sent out news releases calling on senators to reject guest-worker proposals.
Even the Mexican government has entered into the debate. It took out ads in large U.S. newspapers Monday advocating a guest-worker program here and offering to do more to secure its side of the border.
Thursday, Bush called for advocates on all sides of the immigration debate to be “civil.”
