Posted on Tue, Jul. 19, 2005
Senators introduce `work and return' immigration measure
BY DENA BUNIS
The Orange County Register
WASHINGTON - (KRT) - Two powerful Republican senators Tuesday offered their solution to the nation's immigration system, a measure that would require the estimated 10 million undocumented residents of the United States to go back to their home countries and apply for permission to come back to work here.
"This is a work and return program," said Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., who co-authored the bill with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, chairman of the immigration subcommittee. Both those who participate in a new temporary guest worker program and those who are already here illegally "will have to return, every one of them, to their country of origin."
Their take on this issue sets the stage for a contentious debate in the Senate over the next 12 months.
Of the two legislative chambers, the Senate has the best chance of coming to agreement on an immigration bill. Most Democrats prefer a more relaxed approach to immigration reform. But even within the Republican majority, lawmakers will have to walk a fine line between those who oppose any benefits for illegal immigrants and those who are more willing to allow some undocumented workers already here to attain legal status.
Anything that would allow the millions who came illegally or overstayed their visas would amount to an amnesty, Cornyn said. "And that is not political saleable in the United States Congress and the president says he opposes it."
Cornyn said his bill closely mirrors the desire of President Bush to match willing workers and willing employers but to have temporary workers return home when their work is done.
The proposal will be set against a bipartisan measure authored by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.
Both deal with the need for better enforcement to make sure that employers hire only legal workers. Both have temporary guest worker programs in an effort to deal with the country's labor needs. And both have a solution to the millions of illegal immigrants living and working here.
But the details are vastly different and the coming weeks will show whether the Judiciary Committee can get behind one measure or the Senate will be asked to vote on competing solutions.
"It's long, long, long, long stretch" to reconcile these two proposals, Kennedy said Tuesday. He said the rival bill contemplates "the mass deportation of illegal immigrant persons." That, he said, "is not a realistic solution and won't solve the security and economic problems we face."
McCain sees real differences between the two bills and he wasn't sure the Judiciary Committee would be able to settle on one measure.
For Jose and Carmen Montoya of Orange, Calif., who have lived here illegally since 1979, Cornyn's plan sounds like a risk they are not willing to take.
"Sounds more like a type of voluntary repatriation," said Jose Montoya, 55. "I would do it if before leaving they'd give me a document saying that I will return in a certain period of time. I know living here with my status is bad, but it would be worse if I go to Mexico with the uncertainty of maybe never having the chance to come back again."
To James Gilchrist of Aliso Viejo, Calif., founder of the Minuteman project, the plans sounds good on paper, but he's skeptical that the government will follow through on the enforcement provisions.
"I give them an A for effort but still an F for credibility," said Gilchrist, who said he will keep up his efforts to organize civilian patrols of the borders because he doesn't see the government honoring a promise made years ago to add 10,000 border patrol agents.
The new bill - the text of which was not available on Tuesday - raises more questions than it answers for business, said John Gay, head of the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition. Gay's group has issued qualified support for the McCain-Kennedy bill.
Gay said his group has always wanted to give employers the option to keep needed workers. "A lot of these jobs are high turnover jobs but that doesn't mean you like to see mandated turnover," Gay said. Undocumented workers are most prevalent in agriculture and the service industry, such as hotels and restaurants.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said she cannot support the Cornyn-Kyl measure. She plans to offer her own proposal she said, "to legalize up to 600,000 immigrants and their families who have been in the country for at least three years working in agriculture and agree to work in agriculture for another five years."
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, who is part of a group of House lawmakers who would likely oppose any guest worker program, said he doesn't believe business needs to import foreign workers.
"Why don't we have Americans hired at those jobs at higher wages?" asked Rohrabacher, R-Calif. "I totally reject the idea that there aren't Americans to do those jobs."
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BILL AT A GLANCE
_Asks illegal immigrants to come forward, return to home country and apply for guest worker or permanent legal status from there.
_Adds 10,000 federal agents over five years to police workplace to curb illegal hiring and 1,000 to combat document fraud.
_Increases penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants.
_Spends $2.5 billion over five years for border technology, including unmanned aerial vehicles.
_Creates new guest worker program in which foreign nationals work two years and return to their home country for a year. No guaranteed path to legalization.
_Employers required to use computerized system to verify legal status of workers.
_Adds 10,000 detention beds to eliminate release of illegal immigrants into the United States.
_Would issue all Americans new machine-readable, tamper-resistant Social Security cards
Senators introduce `work and return' immigration measure
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Originally Posted by Louis VI the Fat
Actually it also makes sense.... 
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