Senate Advances Sweeping Immigration Bill

Senate Advances Sweeping Immigration Bill
By SUZANNE GAMBOA,

WASHINGTON (May 24) - The Senate voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to limit
debate on election-year immigration legislation, clearing the way for final
passage later this week of a bill that calls for tougher border security as well
as an eventual chance at citizenship for millions of men and women in the
country illegally.
The vote to advance the measure was 73-25, 13 more than the 60 needed.
Despite the controversy surrounding the bill, the outcome was not a
surprise. Even some of the bill's opponents said they were satisfied they had been
given ample opportunity over past week to try and give the bill a more
conservative cast.
Final passage would set the stage for a difficult negotiation with the
House, which passed legislation last year that exposes all illegal immigrants to
criminal felony charges.
President Bush has repeatedly urged Congress to approve an immigration bill
that generally follows the approach taken by the Senate, and some senators
expressed optimism that a deal could be reached.
"The politics of solving this problem is better than the politics of doing
nothing," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
"Does someone have a better approach? Not yet. But we're still open for
business," said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary
Committee.
Across the Capitol, senior White House strategist Karl Rove met for the
second straight week with the GOP rank and file. Asked whether he had made any
progress, he told reporters afterward, "Could be."
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Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., predicted before the vote that
the bill would receive "not overwhelming support but very strong support" and
that a legislative compromise would be reached with the House.
"The problem is too big, with millions of people coming across the border
and with hundreds dying as they come across the border," Frist said on NBC's
"Today" show. "We as a governing body cannot simply turn and look the other way
and say we're not going to do anything about it."
"It looks very much like the bill is on a path to conclusion," said Sen. Mel
Martinez, R-Fla., one of the authors of the compromise bill.
On Tuesday, the Senate called for tougher employer penalties on businesses
that hire illegal workers. The vote was 58-40.
Employers who do not use a new computerized system could be fined $200 to
$600. The system would include information from the Social Security
Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and Homeland Security Department.
There would be $20,000 fines for hiring illegal immigrants once the new
screening system is in place, double the current maximum. Repeated violators
could be sentenced to prison terms of up to three years.
Congress passed employer sanctions as part of the 1986 amnesty law, but they
were never fully enforced and workers and employers got around them with
fraudulent documents.
The Senate bill requires employers to check Social Security numbers and the
immigration status of all new hires within 18 months after money is provided
to the Homeland Security Department to expand the electronic system for
screening workers.
Workers' information would have to be submitted to the electronic system
within three days after the worker is hired. The Homeland Security Department
would have to confirm the worker is legal or tell the employer the worker can't
be immediately confirmed as a legal worker within 10 days.
The measure provides workers opportunities to contest the system's
determination and to correct information that may be incorrectly flagging them as
illegal workers. It also protects employers from liability if the screening
system makes a mistake.
"This is probably the single most important thing we can do in terms of
reducing the inflow of undocumented workers, making sure we can enforce in a
systematic way rules governing who gets hired," Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said
Tuesday.
Opponents said the verification system would take years to implement and
complained that workers deemed illegal could still hold onto jobs until their
appeals are exhausted.
The House passed a bill in December that would impose fines on employers of
undocumented workers ranging from $5,000 to $40,000. But, unlike the Senate
bill, the House measure would require employers to screen all employees -- an
estimated 140 million people -- instead of only new hires.
5/24/2006 11:08:37
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