Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2005 | 7:36 a.m.
Senate Bill 1033
INTRODUCED BY SENS. JOHN MCCAIN, R-ARIZ., AND EDWARD KENNEDY, D-MASS.
Would create a guest-worker program that allows undocumented workers to remain in the United States for up to six years to work, and ultimately apply for perm anent residency. It also requires them to pay up to $2,000 in fees, study Engli sh and break no laws. The House companion bill is House Resolution 2330.
Senate Bill 1438
INTRODUCED BY SENS. JOHN CORNYN, R-TEXAS, AND JON KYL, R-ARIZ.
Would send illegal workers back to their home country within five years. But they could be eligible to return to work up to two years in jobs that cannot be filled by U.S. workers. It also calls for tougher border security (up to 10,000 new border agents) and more accountability from employers, including stiffer penalties for those who hire undocumented workers.
WASHINGTON -- Congress is considering two immigration bills that could have far-reaching implications for the U.S. service-worker economy and the nation's estimated 11 million undocumented workers, including tens of thousands in Las Vegas.
Lawmakers are mulling whether to mount a final, high-stakes effort to tackle the emotionally charged issue of immigration reform in the waning weeks of this year's session.
They appear focused on two primary issues: effectively controlling U.S. borders and dealing fairly with the illegal workers already in this country, likely through "guest worker" programs.
"We have a major, major problem on our hands," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said at a hearing Tuesday. "It is a matter of very, very substantial urgency."
Specter vowed that the Senate would attempt to act on immigration legislation this year, although another key player in the debate, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said senators may not get to the issue until early next year. If that happens, lawmakers could be more reluctant to tackle such a controversial issue in an election year.
The congressional debate mirrors a national conversation about immigrants. At its extremes, the debate pits those who argue that immigrants should be allowed to flow into the country to enrich the national fabric and fire U.S. economic engines, against those who say immigrants have broken the law, swamped social services and taken jobs from longtime U.S. citizens.
"There will be a vigorous debate on this," Cornyn spokesman Don Stewart said. "Nothing is settled."
For now, most of the focus in Congress is on two Senate bills.
One bill sponsored by Cornyn and Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., would toughen border security. It also would give undocumented workers up to five years to return home, with the possibility of returning on temporary work visas for jobs that Americans workers cannot or will not fill. Workers who return home would then be eligible to apply from there to become U.S. citizens.
The other bill, sponsored by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., also seeks to strengthen border security, but differs significantly in that it creates a pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers -- without requiring that they first return to their native country.
Under the bill, illegal workers would have up to six years to work in this nation, after which they would be required to leave only if they were not in the paperwork "pipeline" to become permanent citizens.
"We know that the current system is broken," Kennedy said Tuesday.
The McCain-Kennedy bill has the backing of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who touted it at a Las Vegas rally last week, flanked by Las Vegas labor, business and religious leaders.
Critics of that measure say it effectively offers amnesty.
"Anything that launders the status of an illegal alien is an amnesty," said Mark Kirkorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, who argued that the nation has never committed to strictly enforce its current immigration laws.
Critics of the Cornyn-Kyl bill say that aliens likely would not apply for guest-worker status if they know that they ultimately would be sent home for at least a year, making that key provision unworkable.
"Somebody is going to have to explain to me how they do that," McCain told reporters.
On Tuesday the Bush administration attempted to clarify its position without endorsing either bill. The president called for stricter border patrol enforcement and also backs a plan that allows illegal immigrants to apply for temporary work visas for up to six years. But they then would be required to return to their home country for at least one year.
Labor Secretary Elaine Chao at the Senate hearing stressed that Bush did not support an "automatic pathway" to permanent citizenship.
"The administration plan is not an amnesty for illegal immigrants," she said.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the Senate panel that 11,000 agents stretched along 6,000 miles of border with Canada and Mexico, and another 18,000 posted at ports of entry, were doing their best to stem the tide of illegal immigrants. He vowed to halt a "catch and release" policy that allows illegal aliens to fade into U.S. communities.
But he stressed that immigration reform was a "three-legged stool." Border control and rounding up immigrants already in the United States must be matched with a temporary worker program, Chertoff said.
"We're going to need more than just brute enforcement," Chertoff said.
But Republican congressional leaders have signaled that they want to first address immigration enforcement only, setting aside for now the complicated questions of guest-worker programs and how to fill unskilled U.S. labor jobs.
Reid questioned the GOP's tack.
"Heightened enforcement without reform will not work or allow us to better control our borders," he said.
Nevada leaders have a keen interest in immigration because undocumented workers help power the state's tourism economy. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services estimated in 2000 that there were 101,000 undocumented workers in Nevada.
But UNLV immigration law clinic co-founder David Thronson said that fast-growing Clark County -- increasingly a labor magnet for immigrants -- now could be home to as many as 200,000 undocumented workers. One in 10 Clark County children lives in a "mixed status" home, where at least one family member has a varying citizenship status, he said.
The nation would benefit from a balanced approach that includes more enforcement and a workable guest-worker program, Thronson said. Given ample U.S. jobs, merely implementing a tougher border policy will not stop the flow across the border, but it will boost the dangerous, illegal human trafficking industry, he said.
Las Vegas has become a draw to illegal immigrants who enter through California, but come to Nevada because of the many service-industry and construction jobs, said Keith Schwer, director of UNLV's Center for Business and Economic Research.
In a 2003 report, Schwer concluded that non-native Hispanic workers help drive the Las Vegas economy, generating $15.5 billion in spending and contributing $829 million in state and local taxes.
It is unclear how a bill that would send workers back home could affect the Las Vegas economy, Schwer said, adding that it is uncertain whether such a measure could be enforced.
If it could be effectively implemented, "then I suspect the impact could be fairly large," he said.
Benjamin Grove can be reached at (202) 662-7436 or at grove@ lasvegassun.com.
archive
