BNA Daily Labor ReportOctober 26, 2005Immigration Bill on Senate Floor “Very Early” Next year, Frist Says By Fawn Johnson Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) Oct. 25 pledged to bring a "comprehensive" immigration bill to the Senate floor "very early" next year. Emerging from a private meeting with Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas), who sponsor the two major competing Senate immigration bills, Frist said the three senators have agreed to structure the floor debate so that it will focus first on border security issues "and then build out from there to a comprehensive proposal." Once the Senate has agreed on border enforcement provisions regarding immigration, the debate would then progress to amendments addressing enforcement of employment-related immigration laws, and then a new guestworker plan, according to Frist. The most controversial issue in the debate--how to handle the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants who are already in the United States--would be debated last, McCain said. "I think we're in agreement on enforcement. I think you'll see pretty rapid agreement on that," McCain told reporters. "We start out with enforcement. We move to guestworker [amendments], then move to the issue of the 11 million [undocumented immigrants] who are here."
"I think we all agree that comprehensive immigration reform is the way to go. You can't just fix a piece of this and claim victory," Cornyn said. Frist hastened to say that he has not committed to making an immigration bill the first item of business when Congress reconvenes in January, but he reiterated that the debate would take place "very early." Frist already has pledged to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) to schedule floor debate on stem cell research and an asbestos trust fund early next year. A Frist aide said the immigration debate would likely take place before either of those two issues, however. The House is expected to act on an immigration bill this year that would focus solely on enforcement of current immigration laws, according to McCain. "One of the options would be to take that bill and build on it," he told BNA after the meeting.
Cornyn's bill (S. 1438), which he sponsors with Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), would create a new guestworker program that would require undocumented immigrants currently in the country to return to their home countries within five years (138 DLR A-2, 7/20/05) The guestworker program in McCain's bill (S. 1033), which he sponsors with Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), would allow undocumented immigrants currently in the United States to pay $2,000 and wait six years to qualify for a green card (92 DLR A-1, 5/13/05) "There's about 90 percent agreement between Cornyn/Kyl and McCain/Kennedy," McCain said. "That 10 percent is huge, but that's not as if they are vastly different pieces of legislation." The main sticking point between the two bills involves undocumented immigrants who already are in the United States. Cornyn told reporters that he could not support any provisions that would "be perceived as amnesty" for those individuals. In the past, both Cornyn and Kyl have used the term "amnesty" to describe the provisions in the McCain/Kennedy bill that would allow undocumented aliens to pay fines and wait certain period on temporary visas before they would be eligible for green cards. Two other potentially volatile areas involve the renewability of guestworker visas and whether those visa holders would be allowed to file green card applications while they are in the United States. "There's fundamental agreement on most of this. It's just the resolution of how you shape a guestworker program and how you treat the 11 million people who are already here," McCain said. "And those are big issues but that's why you have debate on the floor of the Senate." Both the McCain/Kennedy bill and the Cornyn/Kyl measure call for increased enforcement at the border and would require employers to verify new hires work eligibility.
At a separate press conference, Hagel said breaking the proposal into smaller parts would help advance the immigration debate in Congress. "It might be, strategically, a better way to approach comprehensive immigration reform," he said. "They are more absorbable, and we can get more consensus on specific parts of these bills." The guestworker and earned adjustment components of Hagel's proposal are similar to a measure that Hagel introduced in January 2004 with then Senate Minority Leader Thomas Daschle (D-S.D.) (13 DLR A-11, 1/22/04) They introduced their bill shortly after President Bush unveiled a proposal for a new, uncapped guestworker program that would be open to undocumented immigrants (4 DLR AA-1, 1/8/04) The border security and employer verification components of the proposal have been enhanced from the original Hagel/Daschle bill, Hagel said. Hagel's bill would give undocumented workers a chance to apply for green cards after eight years if they could prove they have lived for at least five years in an illegal status in the United States and worked at least three of those years, according to a summary of the bill. To qualify for green cards, those workers also would be required to demonstrate a knowledge of English, pay all federal and state taxes, pass a background check, register for military selective service, and pay a $2,000 fine. Undocumented workers that cannot meet those requirements would be allowed to remain in the country for three years, but they then would be required to return to their home countries and be re-admitted through regular procedures, the summary said. The "earned legalization" provisions in Hagel's current bill and the older Hagel/Daschle bill are similar to those in the McCain/Kennedy measure. Hagel quipped that McCain and Kennedy must have "studied that very carefully" when drafting their bill. "The momentum is building" on immigration, Hagel said, adding that he "didn't want to hold back" on introducing his bill so that he could play a part in the debate. "You need to be suited up and on the field if you're going to have an opportunity to play," he said.
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