Immigration II: No Guarantees

Bush Counting on
Tougher Enforcement
To Carry Revived Bill

By DAVID ROGERS
June 25, 2007; Page A4

WASHINGTON -- Immigration legislation returns to the Senate this week with the White House hoping that concessions to conservatives and pressure from business will draw reluctant Republicans on board.

The measure, a major priority for President Bush, was pulled from the floor June 7 after twice failing to get the 60 votes needed to cut off debate. Since then, $4.4 billion has been added to improve border security, and further changes are expected to emphasize national security and try to quell the revolt on the right.

The proposals would establish an entry-exit tracking system for future guest workers and would permanently bar entry to individuals who are caught overstaying their visas. Criminal-background checks of illegal immigrants seeking probationary visas would be expanded and more personnel hired for enforcement. And the high-tech industry has been promised an amendment adding 40,000 annual visas for skilled workers and giving companies a greater say in hiring the employees they want. [Fine Tuning]

Under pressure from the White House, much of the business community -- with the chief exception of home builders -- has agreed not to oppose stricter work-site rules requiring verification of workers' legal status. Major trade groups have begun to endorse the bill, even though they find it "less than perfect," as Harold McGraw III, chairman of the Business Roundtable, put it.

Nonetheless, the bill's path is perilous. Tensions were evident Friday, according to industry sources, as Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez telephoned high-tech executives, including Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, to press the companies to do more to rally support for the bill.

"It's an uphill fight," says Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy. Senate Republican Whip Trent Lott of Mississippi, who worked to resurrect the package, told "Fox News Sunday" that "the wheels may come off."

"I haven't seen a lot of Lazaruses coming out of the Senate," said former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican. Lawmakers describe a daily barrage of angry phone calls protesting plans to legalize millions of undocumented workers.

A first test will come tomorrow when the Senate votes on a procedural motion to expedite consideration of the bill. The White House is confident of getting the 60 votes needed. But that could require 22 Republicans, and there is growing anxiety that the vote won't be the cakewalk once anticipated given so many senators' unwillingness to commit.

Debate will then follow on amendments, some of which risk alienating supporters. Labor Democrats, such as Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, are increasingly unhappy with the bill's rightward tilt. Among Republicans, even White House allies such as New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg say the administration has "zero credibility" on the border-security issue. "I will vote to proceed, but I think it is very undecided now if the bill will pass," Mr. Gregg said.

Beyond the amendments, opponents can raise multiple procedural hurdles, requiring 60-vote supermajorities to waive, stretching out the process and wearing down backers. "Support for it has continued to erode," Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.), said in an appearance on ABC News's "This Week." "The poll numbers continue to plummet."

Conservatives helped kill immigration overhaul in the last Congress, and the tone this year is even tougher. "It's vicious," says Mr. Hastert, who says his office had to take a longtime Hispanic aide off the phones because of abuse by callers. [Trent Lott]

At the same time, conservative think tanks, like the corporate-supported Heritage Foundation, have weighed in against the bill and added an intellectual element that was less prominent last year.

"Between the last round and this one, a lot more people have done more serious work," said Matthew Spaulding of Heritage. "The debate is at a level it wasn't before....The second time it has come up there has been a lot more analysis."

The irony is that Mr. Bush has governed so long by courting the same conservative base pitted against him now. Other presidents, such as Bill Clinton, also defied their supporters with initiatives -- in his case, revamping welfare in the mid 1990s. But there wasn't the same sense of betrayal and anger then among Democrats in Congress, who split almost evenly on the final welfare bill.

In this case, Mr. Bush is not only defying his past style, but doing it on an issue that especially riles his base.

Nonetheless, with his boyhood roots amid West Texas's large Mexican-American community, Mr. Bush has a personal commitment to resolving the immigration issue despite his weakened political standing. In his radio address Saturday, the president urged lawmakers to "summon the political courage" to act.

Increasingly, the administration has begun to counter its critics with national-security arguments, highlighting how the bill would better secure U.S. borders and track foreigners in the country. "This is first and foremost a national-security bill," Mr. Gutierrez said in an interview. "If you can convince people of the risk of not getting the bill, they are supportive."

Agriculture interests, dependent on immigrant labor, have been faithful to the bill, running newspaper spots and radio ads in key Southern states. But business lobbyists discount their own ability to change votes, given Americans' deep emotions stirred by the debate. And there is frustration on many sides that no time has been set aside to reconsider a narrowly adopted amendment to terminate the guest-worker program after five years.

The high-tech industry, which could help sway Republicans such as Mr. Gregg or his colleagues in Minnesota and Virginia, shares the same dilemma. It has been promised a two-part amendment that would increase the number of visas to skilled workers by 40,000 a year and allow a five-year period in which employers would continue to have greater say in selecting the employees they want. In the first two years, employers would be able to petition to fill as many as 115,401 slots. That would fall to about 87,000 in the third year, 58,467 in the fourth and 44,234 in the fifth.

With this commitment, the industry is supporting the larger bill, but it remains worried by a labor-backed amendment to the H-1B visa program crafted by Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat. Days of negotiation have failed to bring a breakthrough, and the administration is fearful that the industry is holding back its efforts to push the bill until the issue is resolved.

A veteran of the civil-rights debates in the 1960s, Mr. Kennedy keeps pressing. "If we miss this opportunity, this country is going to be disserved and so will we for having failed to meet our responsibilities," he says. "We're going to have been taken in by the bumper-sticker-solution people rather than dealing with the substantive issue, and I think that's demeaning to the institution."

Write to David Rogers at david.rogers@wsj.com

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#1. To: a vast rightwing conspirator (#0)

Increasingly, the administration has begun to counter its critics with national-security arguments, highlighting how the bill would better secure U.S. borders and track foreigners in the country.

Which means the exact opposite is true.

Mister Clean posted on 2007-06-25 14:51:32 ET Reply Trace Private Reply

#2. To: a vast rightwing conspirator (#0)

Build a wall, you peckerheads.

Join the Ron Paul Revolution

Lod posted on 2007-06-25 15:50:28 ET Reply Trace Private Reply

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