Dems Try to Sneak Immigration Reform in Iraq Bill

Dems Try to Sneak Immigration Reform in Iraq Bill

NewsMax.com Wires
Friday, April 15, 2005

WASHINGTON _ The contentious issue of immigration reform threatened to hold up Senate action Wednesday on a $80 billion plus spending bill for the U.S. effort in Iraq, a harbinger of the difficult debate to come.

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Senate Republican leaders, mindful of the differing and strong opinions lawmakers have on immigration, have wanted to avoid having any immigration provisions added to the Iraq bill. But that plan derailed Wednesday when:

Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said she planned to offer an amendment that would expand the number of H-2B temporary guest worker visas available in an effort to help the fishing and tourism industries in her state and others;

Sen. Larry Craig., R-Idaho, could not be talked out of trying to add AgJobs, a farm worker measure that would create a new temporary guest worker program that offered the prospect of legalization and eventual citizenship to migrant workers.

When word spread that such additions might be in the wind, Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, authored a non-binding resolution that no such measures be added. It passed 61-38. But almost immediately after that resolution passed, the immigration provisions began to be offered. More of the same is expected today.

Feinstein was particularly upset at the notion that AgJobs could be considered now.

"This is going to be a huge magnet" for illegal immigrants, Feinstein warned her colleagues during an impassioned floor speech. "Mark my words." That measure, she said, "could bring millions of people into this country - workers, their spouses, their minor children."

Feinstein said bills like AgJobs should go through the traditional committee hearing and debate process.

But Craig has been trying to get his measure onto the Senate floor for more than two years and saw the Iraq bill as his chance. Craig has long said if given a chance on the floor, his bill would pass.

The tussle over putting immigration on the spending bill began in the House. It dates back to late last year when House Judiciary Chairman Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., acquiesced on his holding up the intelligence reform measure in exchange for a promise that his Real ID Act, which would effectively exclude illegal immigrants from getting driver's licenses, would be added to the first must-pass bill of the 109th Congress.

This Iraq bill is just such a vehicle. Real ID Act was added to the House version of the Iraq supplemental and will be a key point of contention in the upcoming conference committee on the measure.

Feinstein introduced another resolution Wednesday calling on the members of the conference committee not to accept the Real ID Act as part of the spending bill. That resolution is expected to be voted on by the Senate today. Again, Feinstein said such a measure should go through committee scrutiny before a floor vote.

The question still remaining is whether any these immigration provisions will make it onto the spending bill. Votes on them could come Thursday.

Cornyn, who chairs the immigration subcommittee, promised his panel would tackle immigration reform this year. But he implored colleagues not to allow an immigration debate to "bog down this emergency supplemental appropriations bill to equip our troops with what they need."

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