Senate Tries to Reconcile Immigration Approaches

WASHINGTON —  Senators took on the task of overhauling the nation’s immigration laws Wednesday, a two-tiered process in which they publicly considered two competing bills while working behind the scenes to find common ground.

Despite tensions, particularly within the Republican Party, some senators said they were optimistic about finding consensus, and the House leadership indicated that agreement was possible between that chamber’s already-passed bill and whatever might emerge from the Senate.

Still, the emotional question of how to deal with the estimated 12 million people illegally in the United States remains the point on which all efforts pivot.

The Senate’s debate will focus on two bills, an enforcement-only measure from Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and a bill approved Monday by the Senate Judiciary Committee that includes enforcement, provisions for a guest-worker program, and a way for those here illegally to work toward citizenship.

Opponents of the committee bill contend that it offers amnesty to individuals who broke the law.

“The committee bill goes too far in granting what most Americans will see as amnesty,” said Frist, whose enforcement-only bill is the first to be debated.

“It is not an amnesty,” countered Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.). In amnesty, “lawbreakers do not have to pay for their transgressions,” he said, outlining the requirements that undocumented immigrants would have to meet to attain citizenship.

Senators began debating the issue shortly after President Bush threw his weight behind a plan that would allow those now here illegally, along with new guest workers, to work toward citizenship.

In the House, which produced a tough enforcement-only bill in December, leaders signaled for the first time that they might be able to find common ground with the Senate if it passed a guest-worker program. A House-Senate conference committee would need to agree on compromise legislation before an immigration bill could go to the president to be signed into law.

“We’re not going to discount anything,” said House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).

An influential, largely Republican caucus in the House opposes any deviation from a security-only approach, but Hastert’s comments signaled that the House Republican opinion on immigration was not monolithic.

“Our first priority is to protect the border. And we also know there is a need in some sectors of the economy for a guest-worker program. But we want to see what the Senate comes forward with, and we will go through the process,” Hastert said.

Debate on the Senate Judiciary Committee bill begins today and is expected to end next week, before the Senate leaves on recess.

On the enforcement front, that bill would add fences along the Arizona border, double the number of border agents and criminalize tunnel-building.

It also sets forth a path to citizenship for people now here illegally. They would have to work for six years, pay fines and back taxes, and learn English and civics before they could apply for a green card indicating legal permanent resident status. Five years after gaining that status, they could seek citizenship.

But these workers would receive no special consideration: Their green card applications would be processed after those from people outside the United States.

The bill would also allow up to 400,000 people a year to enter the country to work for up to six years. Once they had worked for four years, they too could start working toward citizenship.

A competing proposal by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) would not allow guest workers to gain citizenship and would require those now here illegally to return to their home countries.

On Wednesday, Bush spoke up for the first time in favor of a guest-worker program that leads to citizenship.

“I believe that we ought to say to somebody doing a job an American won’t do, ‘Here is a tamper-proof identity card that will enable you to be here for a period of time,’ ” Bush told a meeting of Freedom House, an independent organization that supports the expansion of democracy. “And if that person wants to become a citizen of the United States, because we’re a nation of law, they get at the end of the line, not the beginning of the line.”

Bush, who arrived in Cancun, Mexico, on Wednesday, is to meet with Mexican President Vicente Fox today.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a Judiciary Committee member who favors a guest-worker program that leads to citizenship, said Bush was “one of the keys” to brokering a compromise. “He can validate a comprehensive approach” that includes enforcing immigration laws as well as ensuring a labor supply, Graham said.

He was among several senators optimistic about the prospects for compromise. “I think it’s possible to get a consensus,” he said.

Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), who came to the United States from Cuba as a teenager, also sounded a hopeful note. “People are talking -- they’re not necessarily agreeing, but I can see a way we can get to a compromise,” he said, without offering details.

Martinez, the Senate’s only immigrant, also backs a guest-worker program.

Frist said he expected several amendments to the Judiciary Committee bill to “tighten” its “amnesty” provisions, indicating he favored a result similar to the Kyl-Cornyn model.

Specter said he was still trying to find a compromise. “It’s not possible to describe what that compromise will look like; things are too fluid,” he said, predicting stormy debate in the days ahead.

“Emotionalism runs very high on these issues,” he said.

Frist urged his colleagues to keep their debate civil.