Capitol Hill closes in on immigration reform

Proposed bills would create a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship for illegal migrants.

from the March 13, 2007 edition

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In fiscal year 2006, the number of arrests more than tripled – to 4,383, including 718 arrests for criminal offenses – compared with a year earlier. In 2004, there were only 845 arrests. The push continues to accelerate. Three months into this fiscal year, ICE has already made more than double the criminal arrests that were made in all of 2005.

"Criminal enforcement against an employer sends a strong message to other employers to pay attention to their hiring process," she adds. Evidence from recent operations, including one last week, shows that not only do these employers hire illegal aliens, but "it was part of their business model to hire illegal aliens."

But critics say the stepped-up enforcement is aimed more at finding votes on Capitol Hill than ferreting out wrongdoers. "The Bush administration is pursuing a spoonful of enforcement to help the amnesty go down," says Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which opposes amnesty. "It is transparently an effort to provide political cover for House members to vote for an amnesty. Nobody believes that this enforcement will continue beyond the ink drying on the bill."

Both the House and Senate bills that passed in the last Congress stepped up border security, including a fence along hundreds of miles of the border with Mexico. But lawmakers were not able to agree on a guest-worker plan or whether to include a path to citizenship for those in the country illegally.

Until recently, only a handful of lawmakers were in the inner circle working on the shape of a new bill: Sens. Edward Kennedy (D) of Massachusetts and John McCain (R) of Arizona and Reps. Jeff Flake (R) of Arizona and Luis Gutierrez (D) of Illinois.

Many lawmakers, including Sen. Arlen Specter, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, complained about being left out of the process. "I asked to be part of the process, and I was rebuffed," said Sen. Sam Brownback (R) of Kansas, a presidential hopeful who backed last year's bipartisan immigration bill.

"It isn't a draft yet. When it is, others will have a chance to participate," says an aide to Senator Kennedy.

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