House Leaders Intensify Debate on Immigration

Congressional jockeying for the upper hand in overhauling U.S. immigration laws intensified Wednesday, as House leaders announced a new round of hearings meant to expose what they termed “troubling provisions” in Senate legislation on the issue.

The House statement came as the Senate held a forum that acknowledged the contributions legal and illegal immigrants made to the U.S. economy. More broadly, the hearing was intended to counter criticisms of its bill, which House leaders oppose in large part because it includes a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

Each chamber plans more hearings in an effort to sway public opinion and reframe the debate in terms that favor its side.

The House conducted hearings last week in San Diego and Laredo, Texas, that focused on security threats posed by lax enforcement of immigration laws -- sessions that House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) on Wednesday called “an absolute success.”

“They’ve put us in a stronger position to craft a responsible bill that secures our borders and strictly enforces our immigration laws,” Boehner said.

The House’s new round of hearings over the next few weeks are to be held in Washington -- all with an eye toward finding fault with the Senate bill. A session set for July 26 is to examine the role of the English language in U.S. society and whether the Senate measure would undermine efforts to promote its use by immigrants.

Across the Capitol on Wednesday, the Senate continued to try to build the case for its legislation -- which includes an approach endorsed by President Bush.

Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez, spotlighting the administration’s support for a bill that combines stricter border enforcement with citizenship opportunities for those in the country illegally, headlined the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on immigrants and the economy.

Gutierrez, whose family immigrated to the U.S. from Cuba when he was 7, estimated that illegal immigrants held 5% to 6% of American jobs.

He said that the more the immigration debate veered toward the House’s “enforcement only” approach, the more these immigrants would be driven “farther and father underground. What we want for our national security is to drive them above the shadows, so we know who they are.”

The Senate previously conducted hearings in Philadelphia and Miami. Future sessions are to be held in Florida, Colorado, Arizona and Texas, but dates have not been set.

“I do not believe we’re engaged in dueling hearings,” said Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.). “But when the House announced hearings with a critical tone, we thought it was reasonable to have our own hearings.”

The hearings come at a time when the two chambers would ordinarily be negotiating a final bill.

Legislation the House passed in December would tighten enforcement along the border and at the workplace, adding a 700-mile wall along the southern frontier with Mexico and making illegal presence in the U.S. a felony.

The Senate’s bill, along with an array of enforcement measures, would offer legal status to most of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. and establish a guest worker program.

Specter and Boehner were circumspect about talk of a possible compromise involving “triggers” -- writing a bill in which certain benchmarks would have to be reached on security before other provisions, such as a guest worker program, could proceed.

“There are a lot of ideas that are out there, and I’m not going to count any in or count any out,” Boehner said.