Washington – President Bush laid down his marker in the intense congressional fight over immigration Monday, declaring that it’s “unrealistic” for lawmakers to undertake any legislative proposal that includes the mass deportation of the millions of foreigners living illegally in the United States.
“I know this is an emotional debate,” Bush said in a speech before the Orange County Business Council in California. “But one thing we cannot lose sight of is that we’re talking about human beings – decent human beings that need to be treated with respect. Massive deportation of the people here is unrealistic. It’s just not going to work.”
Hoping to spur Congress to make sweeping changes this year that would shut down the “underground industry” of illegal labor, Bush praised a stalled Senate proposal that would allow most undocumented immigrants to stay in the country legally and work toward citizenship. The Senate plan, sidetracked by last-minute partisan bickering, would allow the undocumented who have been here at least five years to stay if they pass a criminal background check, learn English, and pay a fine and back taxes.
At the same time, Bush took aim at a rival plan Republican leaders pushed through in the House of Representatives last year. The target of massive protests by immigrants across the U.S. in recent weeks, the House bill focuses almost entirely on strengthening the nation’s borders, penalizing employers who hire undocumented workers, and making illegal entry into the country a felony punishable by deportation.
“You can hear people out there hollering that (deportation) is going to work,” Bush said of the shouts of anti-immigrant protesters outside that filtered into the room. “It’s not going to work.”
Bush made his comments on the eve of the Senate’s return from a two-week Easter recess. Before adjourning, the chamber was on the verge of passing a bill that would create a new guest-worker system for future immigrants while allowing most undocumented workers to stay legally in the country.
But the Senate’s effort faltered amid disputes over amendments to the bill, and prospects of passing major changes to immigration laws before midterm congressional elections in November dimmed significantly.
Bush’s West Coast trip, which concluded Monday, has been an opportunity for the president to revive his low opinion poll ratings and his languishing second-term domestic agenda, including an overhaul of the nation’s immigration system.
Although the House and Senate have been working on legislation to strengthen control of the nation’s borders, they have taken a different approaches to the question of what to do about the undocumented immigrants – estimated to number between 11 million and 12 million – who are already here.
The Senate plan – based on a proposal drafted by John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. – is backed by a coalition of moderate Republicans and Democrats.
But a more conservative faction of law-and-order Senate conservatives prefers the House bill.
That bill – whose champions include House Judiciary Committee chairman James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin and Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo. – bypasses guest-worker and citizenship provisions and focuses on stopping the flow of migrants, expelling the millions here and constructing a massive fence along the Mexican border.
