Border Bills Far Apart: 2,700 Miles

In two different hearing rooms on two distant coasts, the two chambers of Congress on Wednesday staged competing summer shows to promote their dueling visions of illegal immigration in the United States and the best way to overhaul immigration laws.

At a hearing organized by House Republicans who back tougher enforcement, witnesses in San Diego painted a grim picture of the U.S.-Mexico border as a war zone that fuels crime and is “ripe” for becoming a “terrorist pipeline.”

“National security is synonymous with border security,” said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), who traded barbs with his Democratic counterparts at the often-testy hearing.

About 2,700 miles away in Philadelphia, senators who back a multi-faceted approach to revising immigration policy heard from witnesses who emphasized the essential role illegal workers now play in the nation’s economy.

“Our city’s economy ... would collapse if they were deported,” said New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

The two hearings marked the start of a summer-long contest between the House and the Senate to control the terms of the immigration debate. A House bill passed late last year concentrates on enforcement, while Senate legislation approved in May combines intensified border security with a guest worker program and path to legalization for most of the nation’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.

As lawmakers held court on opposite coasts, President Bush hosted his own field hearing at a Dunkin’ Donuts in Alexandria, Va. Celebrating the entrepreneurial energy of the store’s two Iranian American owners and their Guatemalan American district manager, Bush jokingly offered reporters coffee and reiterated his support for a Senate-style overhaul. “We’re not going to be able to deport people who have been here, working hard and raising their families,” Bush said. “I want to work with Congress to come up with a rational way forward.”

The atmosphere at the House hearing, at San Diego Border Patrol headquarters, was far less jovial. Within sight of the hills of Tijuana and the walls that separate the United States from Mexico, immigration restrictionists waved American flags, while immigrant advocates displayed hundreds of crosses representing those who died trying to cross the border.

A similar duel took place inside the hearing room.

Democrats blasted the Bush administration’s record on work-site enforcement and blamed it for inadequate law enforcement funding and an unwillingness to reimburse local counties for costs related to illegal immigration -- a federal responsibility.

Republicans saw just as much to blame in the jobs and the widespread health and education benefits that attract illegal immigrants to the United States.

At one point, Rep. Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said he hoped committee members would not “hide their heads in the sand” on illegal immigration. Rohrabacher retorted that he was “one member who’s not hidden his head in the sand for 15 years.”

Although both sides lavished praise on the Border Patrol and sheriffs, they jousted over the reasons for crime at the border. Republicans noted that the 14-mile border wall near San Diego has all but eliminated the rampant rape, robbery and murder -- mostly of immigrants by Mexican gangs -- that existed when only a chain-link fence divided the two countries.

The House bill calls for more than 390 miles of walls to be built between Calexico, Calif., and Douglas, Ariz.

On occasion, the committee members called witnesses to task.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said deporting illegal immigrants would add to Americans’ cost of living.

“As an economist rather than sheriff, if you take away that resource, the American people are going to say, ‘Why didn’t you tell me what my real cost was going to be?’ ” Baca said.

Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) replied: “I welcome our witnesses today who may be Renaissance men in terms of interdisciplinary studies, but who also have as their clear and abiding mission the protection of the citizenry and enforcement of our laws.”

Yet when the sniping subsided, witnesses eloquently described a border that is porous and overrun; where immigrant smugglers, even when caught, go unprosecuted; and where local agencies are drowning in the costs of illegal immigration.

About 40,000 California prison inmates are illegal immigrants, Baca said, as are a quarter of the inmates in the Los Angeles County jail. Their presence costs the county about $80 million a year, of which the federal government reimburses only $11 million, he said.

In Philadelphia, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) used his hearing to concentrate largely on immigration’s economic importance, instead of its cost. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), the hearing’s other host, highlighted the moral case for accepting immigrants.

Specter said the intent of his hearing was to make sure that the public understood the Senate bill and to counter House attempts to control the debate.

“The House made up their mind to have hearings; the Senate was not going to sit idly by and be potted plants,” Specter said. “We are not going to criticize the House bill. We are going to develop our own ideas, so the case will be made to the American people about why we think we need ... guest workers and the 11 million undocumented immigrants.”

In little more than two hours of testimony, punctuated by bursts of applause from the audience, the senators heard from a union director and representatives from hospitality, agriculture and landscaping businesses, all of whom attested to the importance of foreign-born workers to their labor-starved industries.

Several witnesses outlined a stark picture of the supply-and-demand issues that draw illegal immigrants across the southern border.

“If we didn’t have foreign workers, we would have a big hole in the economy,” said Ronald E. Bird, a Labor Department economist. “They provide about 14% of the workforce.”

But it was Bloomberg who made the most urgent case for immigration as an economic necessity.

“It would be devastating for our city,” to do without immigrant labor, he said, estimating that 500,000 of New York City’s 8.1 million residents are here illegally. Those immigrants fill restaurant kitchens, scrub and polish for the cleaning industry, drive New York’s taxi fleets and provide homecare for the elderly, Bloomberg said.

“The truth is, our undocumented go up the ladder to senior people at our institutions. The truth is, without them, our city could not function,” the mayor said.

Although most witnesses in Philadelphia backed the Senate bill, the senators also heard from the mayor of Hazleton, Pa., a town that recently made headlines for passing a measure to revoke the licenses of firms that hire undocumented workers; fine landlords for knowingly renting to illegal immigrants; and make English the official city language. Written in frustration over the costs of illegal immigration to the community, the measure takes effect July 13.

In an illustration of how immigration splits the GOP, Hazleton Mayor Louis J. Barletta offered testimony that starkly contrasted with the statements from his fellow Republican, Bloomberg.

“Larger cities may be able to absorb” the costs of illegal immigration, Barletta said, but “it’s killing small cities.”

The House will hold another hearing Friday in Laredo, Texas. The Senate will hold hearings Monday in Miami to examine the issue of immigrants in the military and Wednesday in Washington on the economic importance of illegal immigrants.

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Gaouette reported from Philadelphia and Quinones from San Diego.