Uneasy approval

Senate panel OKs bill that tosses felony provision for aiding illegal immigrants, but it sets up showdown

BY GLENN THRUSH AND PETER CLARK | Newsday Washington Bureau

March 28, 2006

WASHINGTON - The Senate Judiciary Committee rammed through a sweeping immigration reform bill yesterday, rejecting a House measure making it a crime to assist undocumented immigrants, while creating a way for millions of illegal immigrants to stay here legally.

Yet as the committee was deliberating, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) cast doubt on the entire effort, threatening to block the bill from ever reaching the Senate floor if a majority of the Senate's 55 Republican senators don't agree to it.

Frist, a potential 2008 presidential candidate who has courted conservatives, reiterated his threat to introduce his own stripped-down version, which doesn't include the temporary worker or felony provisions.

"If the bill doesn't have majority support, we'll introduce my bill," said Frist, who refused to say if he supported the compromise hammered out by Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) yesterday.

"I don't want to be pinned down," said Frist, who had set a Monday deadline for passage of the bill and predicts his chamber will pass some form of the bill "within two weeks."

Specter, who sped through the all-day committee hearing like an auctioneer with an overloaded docket, predicted his bill would pass. Asked about Republican support for the measure, he said, "It's not a majority of the majority, but it's close."

In the day's most significant action, the committee voted 12-6 to approve an amendment co-sponsored by Sens. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to allow undocumented workers living in the United States to remain while they apply for a green card.

The measure, which conservatives have criticized as back-door amnesty, allows illegal workers to remain in the country if they pay a $1,000 fine, prove they are learning English and settle their back-tax bills.

The committee rejected a Republican amendment to require immigrants to return to their home countries as a condition of applying for permanent residency.

"It rewards illegal immigrants and will be considered an amnesty by Americans," said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). "It will encourage further disrespect for our laws and will undercut our efforts to shore up homeland security."

As the legislators debated, hundreds of pro-immigrant demonstrators picketed on the Capitol grounds, echoing massive protests elsewhere during the past week.

"But even if we win today, it's only one step," said Frank Sharry, executive director of the Washington-based National Immigration Forum, speaking to the crowd on the Capitol's West Lawn. "Immigrants pay a lot in taxes and don't get a lot back."

President George W. Bush, who attended a naturalization ceremony in Washington, didn't comment on the Senate bill, but said, "America is stronger and more dynamic when we welcome new citizens."

The committee voted 10-7 to throw out the House provision making it a felony for charitable groups and clergy to provide food, shelter and other assistance to undocumented immigrants, an issue that helped spur demonstrations and drew condemnation from Catholic leaders.

Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), a co-sponsor of the House bill, said he had no problem rolling back the felony clause. "I support the amendment because it takes away the phony issue the Catholic bishops created," he told Newsday. "Even without this amendment, no priest or nun would have been prosecuted. But if this makes them happy, fine."

The judiciary committee's bill also creates:

12,000 new border patrol positions during the next five years, bringing the total to 23,000.
a program for 400,000 guest workers living outside the country, an initiative pushed by the Bush administration.
a pilot program proposed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) to allow 1.5 million undocumented agricultural immigrants to obtain five-year temporary visas.
new penalties for people who build tunnels under the border or allow tunnels to be built on their property.