Businesses leery of immigration overhaul

Holly Rosenkrantz

Monday, Aug. 29, 2005 | 9:34 a.m.

Some of America's biggest companies are withholding contributions to a public campaign supporting President Bush's immigration plan because they're concerned that any legislation may impose greater restrictions on hiring workers from overseas.

"There is a reluctance to sign up for something that might turn out not to be the type of immigration reform bill we want to see," said John Gay, who runs a coalition in support of guest-worker programs that includes the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, First Data Corp. and Marriott International Inc.

Republican lobbyists including Ed Gillespie, the party's former national chairman, and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, are seeking to raise money for a public relations campaign of as much as $3 million to support Bush's plan. The lobbyists are asking companies such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Microsoft Corp. to contribute between $50,000 and $250,000 to pay for the effort.

Bush's plan aims to allow employers to hire immigrant "guest workers," which companies want. Supporters say their concern is that Republican lawmakers pushing for tighter borders on national-security grounds will pressure Bush eventually to accept a measure making it harder rather than easier to hire workers from overseas.

"We are still uncertain what the policy is that the group will advocate for," Lee Culpepper, a lobbyist for Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart, said of the Gillespie-Armey effort. "Will it be only whatever the White House wants, or will it be independent policy goals formed by the members of the group?"

Lawmakers such as House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Texas Republican, say any immigration measure must have a top goal of sealing U.S. borders against potential terrorists and shouldn't reward illegal migrants with new opportunities to remain in the country.

"It's bad public policy to reward people who violate the law," U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Colorado Republican, said in a statement about Bush's immigration plan. Will Adams, Tancredo's spokesman, said the congressman regards the public lobbying effort as "the Republican elite's emerging campaign to outmaneuver the party's base on the issue of immigration control and border security."

"There are a lot of political forces tugging at the president," Craig Regelbrugge, a lobbyist for the American Nursery and Landscape Association in Washington, said in an interview. "Everyone is trying to one-up each other on who can be tougher."

The debate during the August congressional recess over how to rewrite immigration laws reflects a split between business groups and Republican lawmakers who usually get their support.

"Republican members are hearing from their constituents that any message on immigration has got to take into account concerns about the border," said Cesar Conda, a former domestic policy assistant to Vice President Dick Cheney who is now a principal in Navigators, a Washington political-consulting firm.

About 10.3 million illegal immigrants are now in the U.S., according to the Pew Hispanic Center, a Washington-based research organization.

Democratic Govs. Janet Napolitano of Arizona and Bill Richardson of New Mexico this month declared states of emergency for their borders with Mexico, saying the federal government isn't doing enough to keep illegal migrants from sneaking in.

The campaign being planned by Gillespie and Armey is aimed at emphasizing the economic benefits of immigrant workers, said Terry Holt, a former Bush campaign spokesman who is working with them on the effort.

Many of these businesses face labor shortages. Almost 96,000 nurses and other health care professionals are needed to fill vacancies at nursing homes around the country, according to the American Health Care Association.

The National Restaurant Association projects that the industry will add more than 1.8 million jobs between this year and 2015, a 15 percent increase, while the U.S. labor force grows about 12 percent during the same period.

"Businesses would like to have more access to these kinds of workers who we can't seem to find in the domestic labor supply," Armey said.