McCLATCHEY NEWSPAPERS September 5, 2006
Immigration a hot topic as lawmakers return
WASHINGTON - Supporters of President Bush's proposed immigration overhaul will attempt to resuscitate the stalled initiative when Congress returns from a monthlong break today, but many openly concede that it may be a lost cause. Lawmakers and advocacy groups involved in the debate expressed what appears to be a widening consensus that Bush's top domestic priority is likely dead for the year. "I don't get the sense that people have given up, but with every day that goes by, the stark reality of the calendar is setting in," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the chairman of the Senate subcommittee on immigration. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., a leading architect of a bipartisan immigration bill in the Senate, called on Bush to push to rescue the bill before lawmakers quit work in less than a month to campaign for the Nov. 7 congressional elections. Otherwise, Kennedy said, "We'll have a very, very difficult time." Key elements of Bush's immigration plan include a guest-worker program that would legalize many of those here illegally and toughened enforcement and border security to ultimately halt further illegal immigration. Lawmakers could take a final shot at resolving the issue this year in a brief, post-election "lame-duck session" in November that would include surly outgoing lawmakers defeated for re-election. But the prospects of finding accord particularly if Republicans lose control of one or both chambers appear highly unlikely, many lawmakers and immigration experts said. "I fear that the incentive to demagogue the issue and use it as a political football is going to be greater than the willingness to legislate," said Cecilia Munoz, vice president of the National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest Latino civil rights organization. One potential avenue for compromise centers on a plan that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., unveiled just before the Congress's recess in an attempt to overcome a deadlock between the House of Representatives and the Senate. The plan would create a privately run guest-worker program. If the current 109th Congress fails to act on immigration by the end of the year, the president would have to start over after the next Congress convenes in early January. "I don't think we're going to have an immigration bill this Congress," said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas. "I think the differences between the House and Senate are too great, so I think it is something that is dealt with in the next Congress."
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