Senate GOP plans to unveil tough new immigration bills

Los Angeles Times
Mar. 4, 2008 07:23 PM


WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans are set to announce Wednesday the hardest-hitting package of immigration enforcement measures seen yet -- one that would require jail time for illegal immigrants caught crossing the border, make it harder for them to open bank accounts and compel them to communicate in English when dealing with federal agencies.

Most of the bills stand little chance of being debated in the Democrat-controlled Congress, but the move by some of the Senate's leading Republicans underscores how potent the issue of immigration remains, particularly during a presidential election year.

The bills give Republicans a way to put pressure on the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates to take a tougher stance on immigration. They also reflect a shift toward harsher immigration rhetoric and legislative proposals from both parties since Congress failed to pass a comprehensive overhaul in 2007.

The package, an enforcement smorgasbord assembled by at least eight lawmakers, consists of 11 bills, but could expand to include as many as 14. Some elements echo House bills, but others go beyond House proposals.

One would discourage states from issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants by docking 10 percent of highway funding from states that continue to do so. Another would extend the presence of National Guard on the border and a third would end language assistance at federal agencies and the voting booth for people with limited English ability.

A bill by Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who is leading the effort, would impose a maximum two-year jail sentence on someone caught crossing the border for a second time.

"The point is to reinforce the idea that most of us here feel that we need to make enforcement and border security a first step to solving the overall problem," said Sen. David Vitter, R-La., one of the sponsors.

Although Congress usually avoids tough legislation during an election year, Vitter insisted that he and his colleagues could still get something done. "There are concrete steps we can take. None of us see any reason to waste this time," he said.

Other bills in the package would:


• Block federal funding from cities that bar their police from asking about immigration status.


• Give the Department of Homeland Security the authority to use information from the Social Security Administration to target illegal immigrants.


• Require construction of 700 miles of fencing along the Southern border, not including vehicle barriers.


• Impose sanctions on countries that refuse to repatriate their citizens.


• Deport any immigrant, legal or illegal, for one drunken-driving conviction.


• Enable local and state police to enforce federal immigration laws

Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the Republican proposal "falls far short of what is needed." Democrats want to combine enforcement with a guest-worker program and a way to deal with the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. Reid "continues to support legislation that is tough on people who break the law, fair to taxpayers and practical to implement," Manley said.

But Democrats also have begun embracing a tougher stance on immigration as well. A confidential study assembled for the Democratic leadership earlier this year urged them to start using tougher language. Democrats have focused on offering opportunity to immigrants, but the study by two think tanks urged them to begin speaking in terms of "requiring" illegal immigrants to become legal and about what's best for the United States.

Many House Democrats have gone a step further, endorsing an enforcement-only bill by freshman Democratic Rep. Heath Shuler of North Carolina that would bolster border security and require employers to verify their workers' legal status with an electronic verification system.

The SAVE Act has drawn 140 co-sponsors, 48 of whom are Democrats, many of them vulnerable freshman who won seats from Republicans.

The Democratic leadership dislikes Shuler's bill and has refused to schedule a debate. Republican leaders are considering collecting signatures for a special petition that requires House leaders to bring a bill up for debate if 218 members sign. There are 198 Republicans.

Angela Kelley, director of the Immigration Policy Center, said Senate Republicans might be trying to match their House colleagues. "They might feel they're being upstaged by House Republicans," she said. But she also suggested the Senate bills could provide political protection to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the likely GOP presidential nominee.

Conservatives consider Republican front-runner McCain soft on immigration. McCain, along with the Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, has backed giving illegal immigrants some form of legal status, which conservatives consider "amnesty."

If McCain endorsed the Senate package, that could "create a platform for McCain to look tough on immigration, create distance from Ted Kennedy and erect a shield around the amnesty charge," Kelley said.

Besides Sessions and Vitter, the bills are being introduced by GOP Sens. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, John Barrasso of Wyoming, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina, Pete V. Domenici of New Mexico , James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articl...ig0304-ON.html
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the ORIGINAL masters of the universe are at it again.

Act now you'll get all that plus we'll throw in free federal funding on training the local civ workers and police force!

...Not likely

That is all awful, I really detest the way the federal government undermines the states by holding highway money hostage - it is a common tactic in order to get compliance from states.

And it is primarily done by the party that says they are against big government and federal control. What a bunch of garbage.

The Democrats won't allow it. It needs be a bipartisan with both parties agreeing on it. This is obviously too Republican.

And McCain has always said that reform needs to be compassionate and this is obviously not compassionate. I hope he sticks to his word and doesn't back up this piece of crap bill.

They need 60 votes to pass this bill in addition Reid has to make time on the senate schedule, we still have Ted Kennedy, Obama, Clinton, Feinstein, Boxer, and other senior members of the senate that will fight hard for justice.

I'm glad Hagel, Hatch and Graham are not sponsoring this bullshit

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus are also going to introduce an immigration bill, with a pathway to legalization for the undocumented community. In a sense the immigration debate is not going away, they will need to compromise somehow or nothing will get done. As far as I know republican's did not have any hearings or committee debates on the bill.

The bill is definitly REPUBLICAN BILL.......DEM. is not going to support it. unless add the guest worker program, and DA

Byrd, Landrieu , Dorgan, Pryor, Tester, Baccus and Carper are the only democrats that might vote for this shit.

IF it ever comes to the senate floor.

I can't believe they would deport legal immigrants from one DUI charge. I know drinking and driving is stupid... but unless they got in an accident and killed someone, legal immigrants shouldn't get deported... and if they did kill someone then they should go to jail like any other resident or citizen.