Immigration Reform, Protests, Etc.
New York Times
Bill to Broaden Immigration Law Gains in Senate y
Published: March 28, 2006
WASHINGTON, March 27 — With Republicans deeply divided, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Monday to legalize the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants and ultimately to grant them citizenship, provided that they hold jobs, pass criminal background checks, learn English and pay fines and back taxes.
The panel also voted to create a vast temporary worker program that would allow roughly 400,000 foreigners to come to the United States to work each year and would put them on a path to citizenship as well.
The legislation, which the committee sent to the full Senate on a 12-to-6 vote, represents the most sweeping effort by Congress in decades to grant legal status to illegal immigrants. If passed, it would create the largest guest worker program since the bracero program brought 4.6 million Mexican agricultural workers into the country between 1942 and 1960.
Any legislation that passes the Senate will have to be reconciled with the tough border security bill passed in December by the Republican-controlled House, which defied President Bush’s call for a temporary worker plan.
The Senate panel’s plan, which also includes provisions to strengthen border security, was quickly hailed by Democrats, a handful of Republicans and business leaders, as well as by the immigrant advocacy organizations and church groups that have sent tens of thousands of supporters of immigrant rights into the streets of a number of cities to push for such legislation in recent days.
But even as hundreds of religious leaders rallied on the grounds of the Capitol on Monday, chanting “Let them stay! Let them stay!,” the plan was fiercely attacked by conservative Republicans who called it nothing more than an offer of amnesty for lawbreakers. It remained unclear Monday night whether Senator
Bill Frist, the Senate majority leader, would allow the bill to go for a vote this week on the floor or would substitute his own bill, which focuses on border security. His aides have said that Mr. Frist, who has said he wants a vote on immigration this week, would be reluctant to move forward with legislation that did not have the backing of a majority of the Republicans on the committee.
For the rest of the story, see http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/28/politics/28immig.html?hp&ex=1143522000&en=aa1b59ab1a219424&ei=5094&partner=homepageFor another take on immigration developments, see Jeff Oliver, A new corps mobilizes over immigration: Latinos are uniting as never before to oppose immigration proposals in Congress. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0328/p01s01-uspo.htmlKJ