By John Aloysius Farrell
Post Washington Bureau Chief
Washington – In the course of adopting two rival solutions for securing America’s borders, Republicans have shoved the immigration issue to the top of the nation’s political agenda.
But in giving the issue such a high profile, Republicans have raised expectations they’ll find hard to satisfy. They now confront a question: Will their majority be threatened if they don’t pass immigration reform before Election Day?
There are still more than five months to go before the November balloting, but opinion polls show widespread discontent with Republican governance. The consequences of failing on so prominent an issue as immigration may be the most powerful argument for compromise as House and Senate negotiators meet to work out their considerable differences.
“I certainly don’t think it helps a Republican Congress to come out with no deal,” said Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., a House leader who backs his chamber’s tougher approach.
“To do nothing is a political loser,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who backs the Senate’s comprehensive solution. “Everybody gets blamed for passing problems on to the next generation, and we happen to be in charge.”
Perhaps in recognition that the voters are watching, the House and Senate have taken ever-so-tiny steps toward each other.
The Senate adopted amendments to its bill that would limit the number of legal immigrants allowed, and one House conservative – Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., chairman of the Republican Study Committee – offered a vehicle for compromise.
Pence’s solution – to enact a guest-worker program run by private enterprise – has Colorado roots. It is based on a proposal crafted by Helen Krieble of Parker, president of the Vernon K. Krieble Foundation. Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, in an appearance here last year, endorsed the Krieble plan.
“The solution is to set up a system that will encourage illegal aliens to self-deport and come back legally as guest workers,” Pence said in a speech at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
The path to a compromise, said Pence, is to enact the House’s tough border-security measures, and get corporate America to set up “Ellis Island centers” outside the United States, where private employment agencies will match guest workers with jobs, arrange a background check, and provide a non-forgeable visa card.
Pence’s defection disappointed Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Littleton, a leader in the anti-illegal immigration movement.
“Pence is breaking from House conservatives who remain steadfast in their support of a security-first approach to immigration,” Tancredo said. The plan touted by Pence, Tancredo said, “gives the (Bush) administration exactly what it wants: unlimited foreign workers first, enforcement later or never.”
Davis said the Senate is out of step with the national mood, and that the voters prefer Tancredo’s tougher approach. But the House may have to accede to a guest-worker program, he said, and a path to citizenship for illegal workers who have been here a long time, as the price for securing the border.
“We all ought to recognize at the end of the day that no deal doesn’t work,” said Davis. “If you get no deal the border remains porous, people keep pouring in and you make no progress.”
White House Press Secretary Tony Snow expressed optimism Thursday that common ground can be found.
“It’s pretty clear that members of both houses understand that they pay a heavier political price for failing to act than for acting,” he said. “That’s one thing that I’ve heard from Republicans in both houses.”
