Path To Citizenship Divides Senate
17.05.2006 09:43 - category: Category two: Sub category 1 - Source: CBS
(CBS/AP) Supporters of immigration legislation are predicting they will pass a Senate bill giving millions of illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.
Critics of the legislation aren't giving up, saying they'll continue to try to reshape it.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., planned to offer an amendment that would erect more fencing along the nearly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexican border, an idea similar to one passed in December by the House.
But in a win for supporters, what had been considered a poison pill provision before Easter was softened Tuesday by two of the bill's biggest critics and the defeats of two other proposals considered killer amendments left bill supporters smelling victory.
"Those of us who are working to try to pull people together toward the middle and a comprehensive immigration reform package will succeed," said Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo.
The Senate was to continue working on the bill Wednesday.
"There is a national security issue when you have over a million people coming across these borders each year, illegally, thousands of people running across those boarders every day," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., told CBS News' The Early show Wednesday.
"We've got to tighten down on these borders, and tighten them up. And the only way we can do that is say stopgap measure in the short term and us acting on the floor of the Senate in the mid-to-long term to strengthen that border," Frist said.
The bill authorizes additional spending on border security, a guest worker program, an eventual opportunity at citizenship for most of the 12 million illegal immigrants in the country and tougher enforcement of laws prohibiting hiring of illegal workers. Senate passage appears likely by Memorial Day.
And the president's comprehensive immigration bill has some unlikely support in the Senate, normally harsh critics like Senator Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod reports.
Opponents of granting legal status to most of the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants planned other amendments but said the big fight will occur when negotiators try to merge the Senate bill with the House's enforcement-only legislation.
"Ultimately we all understand where this bill is going to be written. It's going to be written in the conference committee between the House and the Senate," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said.
The president would like a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who are already in the country, but many House Republicans call that amnesty for lawbreakers, reports Axelrod. They remained unyielding in their opposition to legalization.
"Thinly veiled attempts to promote amnesty cannot be tolerated,' said Rep. Tom Price of Georgia. "While America is a nation of immigrants, we are also a nation of laws, and rewarding those who break our laws not only dishonors the hard work of those who came here legally but does nothing to fix our current situation."
Critics of the legislation aren't giving up, saying they'll continue to try to reshape it.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., planned to offer an amendment that would erect more fencing along the nearly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexican border, an idea similar to one passed in December by the House.
But in a win for supporters, what had been considered a poison pill provision before Easter was softened Tuesday by two of the bill's biggest critics and the defeats of two other proposals considered killer amendments left bill supporters smelling victory.
"Those of us who are working to try to pull people together toward the middle and a comprehensive immigration reform package will succeed," said Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo.
The Senate was to continue working on the bill Wednesday.
"There is a national security issue when you have over a million people coming across these borders each year, illegally, thousands of people running across those boarders every day," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., told CBS News' The Early show Wednesday.
"We've got to tighten down on these borders, and tighten them up. And the only way we can do that is say stopgap measure in the short term and us acting on the floor of the Senate in the mid-to-long term to strengthen that border," Frist said.
The bill authorizes additional spending on border security, a guest worker program, an eventual opportunity at citizenship for most of the 12 million illegal immigrants in the country and tougher enforcement of laws prohibiting hiring of illegal workers. Senate passage appears likely by Memorial Day.
And the president's comprehensive immigration bill has some unlikely support in the Senate, normally harsh critics like Senator Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod reports.
Opponents of granting legal status to most of the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants planned other amendments but said the big fight will occur when negotiators try to merge the Senate bill with the House's enforcement-only legislation.
"Ultimately we all understand where this bill is going to be written. It's going to be written in the conference committee between the House and the Senate," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said.
The president would like a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who are already in the country, but many House Republicans call that amnesty for lawbreakers, reports Axelrod. They remained unyielding in their opposition to legalization.
"Thinly veiled attempts to promote amnesty cannot be tolerated,' said Rep. Tom Price of Georgia. "While America is a nation of immigrants, we are also a nation of laws, and rewarding those who break our laws not only dishonors the hard work of those who came here legally but does nothing to fix our current situation."
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