US Senate to debate fate of 12m illegal immigrants
WASHINGTON, May 15: The US Senate is scheduled to open debate on Wednesday on how to deal with the country's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, after an earlier effort failed amid bitter political divisions.
Months into a crackdown on illegal workers by immigration authorities and border guards, the Senate will again take up the question of whether to begin legalising the status of those already in the United States or to send them back home to then apply for US work permits.
Senator Harry Reid, who leads the Democratic majority in the Senate, was to open what is expected to be two weeks of debate on the divisive subject, contingent on a procedural “cloture” vote which requires a 60 of the 100 senators in the closely-divided chamber to set the time for the debate. “The Congress has an obligation to fix our broken immigration system, we need a comprehensive approach, one which is tough but fair,” said senior Democratic Senator Dick Durbin on Tuesday.
The new debate comes after the then-Republican-dominated Senate in 2006 passed legislation to regularise immigrant workers, only to see it die when the House of Representatives refused to consider it.
At the time all 435 members of the House were facing elections, and many members feared how their vote on the Senate measure would affect the outcome of those elections.
Durbin said that the debate should begin where it left off in 2006. “Of course, that bill will be only the starting point in that debate.
Members are going to have ample opportunity to offer amendments, this is the right place to start,” Durbin said.
“We cannot afford to wait any longer,” he said, adding that if the Senate fails to vote to move ahead on the debate tomorrow, “it will be a lost opportunity.” Reid's spokesman Federico de Jesus said that even if the cloture vote fails, Reid “will go ahead in any case” with the same bill that Republicans passed last year.
The Washington Post in its editorial on Tuesday said that Congress was at a “make or break point” on meaningful immigration reform, pointing out that, because the issue is so politically sensitive, not moving ahead now will delay any action on the issue until after the November 2008 presidential and congressional elections.
“The longer Congress dithers, the more states and localities will attempt to deal with the matter on their own -- and the more anarchy will become the rule when it comes to immigration enforcement.” Republican Senator Arlen Spector last week said he thought a grand pact on immigration reforms could be achieved between Democrats, Republicans and President George W. Bush.
Bush's immigration proposals were supported by many Democrats, but hit strong resistance from members of his own Republican Party.
Along with a border crackdown, Bush himself has advocated regularising a large part of the illegal immigrants living in the United States.
Anti-immigration politicians accused him of supporting amnesty for all illegal immigrants.“This is hard work, and both sides, right now, are working very hard to try to produce a bill that will get to where we want, which is to have comprehensive immigration reform,” Bush's spokesman Tony Snow said on Monday.
“The president continues to be optimistic about the outcomes, and we continue to have Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, and their staffers, and White House officials, working very hard on the issue.” According to a poll by the Pew research Centre, 59 per cent of Americans support granting legal status to illegal immigrants who have been in the United States for several years.—AFP
