Washington – President Bush on Tuesday called on the Senate to pass expansive immigration reform by Memorial Day and asked a group of senators, including Colorado’s Ken Salazar, to help reach that goal.
“It’s important that we reform a system that is not working,” Bush said after an hour-long meeting with 17 senators, including top Republican and Democratic leaders. “It’s important that we uphold the values of the United States of America. It’s important that we treat people with dignity.”
The Senate has been considering a plan to create a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship for many illegal immigrants, along with tougher border measures.
Despite a failure to bring an immigration bill to a vote two weeks ago after it was approved by a committee, Senate leaders said they were optimistic a measure could be passed. Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said they were negotiating terms for a vote.
Reid led a filibuster of the bill earlier this month after he and Frist failed to agree on how many amendments lawmakers could offer. Reid wanted to prevent Republican amendments that would dramatically reshape the bipartisan legislation.
Salazar, a Democrat, said he believed Frist and Reid would agree on a “reasonable number” of amendments.
Salazar said he made three points to Bush during the meeting.
“One, it’s important that he continue to speak out for comprehensive immigration reform,” Salazar said. “Two, that he needs to continue to label this bill appropriately. It is not an amnesty bill.
“Then thirdly, I told him always to remember the human suffering,” Salazar added, noting that 600,000 people died in the desert in 2005 trying to cross from Mexico to the United States.
Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., opposes the Senate’s immigration bill, saying it amounts to amnesty for people who broke the law when they entered the country illegally. Ultimately, Bush and Frist must find a way to appease conservative senators who believe as Allard does.
A Senate bill – if it passed – would have to be merged with a sharply different measure approved by the House in December. The House bill beefs up border security and increases penalties for breaching the border illegally, but does not contain a guest-worker program or a path to citizenship.
Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Littleton, who backed the House bill, said Bush “keeps using the word ‘comprehensive’ as a euphemism for amnesty.
“I can only hope that the Senate listens to their constituents more than they will listen to the president, because America does not want what the president is demanding from the Senate,” Tancredo said.
