Amendment’s Defeat Helps Senate Immigration Plan

As the Senate took steps to complete its debate on an immigration bill by the end of the week, lawmakers beat back efforts on Monday to change a guest farmworker program strongly supported by California farmers and labor unions.

And Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced a measure meant to simplify the standards for legalizing most of the estimated 12 million undocumented workers in the United States.

The vote killing the farmworkers amendment, which opponents said would have made the program unworkable, gave added momentum to lawmakers who back the Senate measure. It includes a pathway to legal status for undocumented immigrants and a guest worker program.

By contrast, the House immigration bill, passed in December, focuses on enforcement and border security.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) took formal steps Monday to end debate and move to a final vote, which could come Wednesday or Thursday.

The differences between the Senate and House bills will have to be reconciled in meetings between members of both chambers. President Bush has strongly endorsed the Senate approach, but members of the House and some conservative senators strongly oppose it, raising questions whether a conference committee can bridge the divide.

It is not clear when the conferees will meet, though some officials close to the process say the White House is pushing for next month. Many analysts say lawmakers in both chambers would rather delay final debate on a politically risky immigration bill until after the November election.

Speaking in Chicago on Monday, Bush renewed his call for a civil discussion.

“I’m very worried about the tone of this debate,” he said during a question-and-answer session after a speech to the National Restaurant Assn.

He raised the issue of immigration several times -- in recognition, he said, that his audience represented an industry that is “America’s largest employer of immigrants.”

“You know how essential it is that we have an immigration system that is safe, orderly and fair,” the president said.

Making a pitch for his proposal to include a guest worker program in the legislation, he said: “You understand why effective immigration reform must include a practical and lawful way for businesses to hire foreign workers when they can’t fill those jobs with Americans.”

The agriculture worker amendment, offered by Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), would have changed wage rates in a program that is part of the overall immigration bill.

Chambliss said his measure establishing a “prevailing wage” for immigrant farmworkers was fair to the workers and their employers; opponents said that depending on the location, it would have either cut wages precipitously or raised them to a level that employers could not afford.

Feinstein and California’s other senator, Democrat Barbara Boxer, voted with the 50-43 majority to kill the amendment.

Feinstein’s amendment on legalization would replace the system currently in the Senate bill, which uses the length of time an illegal immigrant has been in the United States to determine who is eligible for legal status and how that status is obtained.

The bill now requires those here less than two years to leave the country permanently.

Those here between two and five years would have to return to their native country and reenter through a guest worker program before being able to apply for legal status.

Those here for more than five years could immediately enter a legalization process that would take an estimated 11 years to obtain citizenship.

Under Feinstein’s plan, scheduled for a vote on Wednesday, all undocumented immigrants in the United States as of January 2006 and who meet certain criteria could apply for legal status.

Immigrants would have to register with the Department of Homeland Security and undergo background checks. Those who passed the checks, proved their work history and the length of time they had been in the country, demonstrated a knowledge of English and U.S. history, and paid back taxes and a $2,000 fine could apply for an “orange card.” They would have to work for six years in the program before applying for permanent residence, and their applications would be processed after those currently in line.

In other action on immigration, the Senate adopted a largely symbolic amendment offered by Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) that would authorize the use of the National Guard, during their annual training periods, as support for Border Patrol agents on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Boxer and Feinstein voted in favor of that amendment, which passed 83-10.