WASHINGTON (By Carolyn
Lochhead, SF Chronicle) Wednesday, April 20, 2005 -
The Senate turned back a major farm guest
worker bill Tuesday while temporarily increasing visas for seasonal workers
after a fierce debate that exposed deep tensions between the nation's demand
for immigrant labor and concern that the borders are being overwhelmed by
undocumented workers.
The measures were attached to an emergency funding
bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan after the House included a provision
to deny driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, hasten construction of a
fence on the southern border and tighten asylum requirements.
The result, congressional aides and lobbyists
said, is that the $81 billion in war money will probably include a small
expansion of temporary worker visas and a major crackdown on immigration
enforcement.
Nearly every senator who spoke over several days
of debate on the immigration measures -- including California Democrat Sen.
Dianne Feinstein, who strongly opposed the agriculture guest worker bill --
conceded that the U.S. immigration system is broken and desperately needs
fixing.
But there is no consensus about how to fix it, and
the controversy deeply divides Republicans in Congress.
The agriculture guest worker bill addressing H2A
visas would have legalized an estimated 500,000 of the 1.6 million workers who
have been working in farm labor, half of them illegally. The amendment
received a 53-to- 45 majority, but needed 60 votes to break a filibuster
against it.
The bill is five years in the making, the result
of a compromise between conservative Republican Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho and
liberal Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts. It has broad support
from farm groups and unions. Craig contends a shortage of farmworkers is
leading to a crisis in agriculture.
Opponents included Feinstein, who warned that the
bill would prove a "huge magnet" for illegal immigrants, and Sen. Jeff
Sessions, R-Ala., who called it an amnesty.
The Senate overwhelmingly agreed, 94-6, to an
amendment by Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., to increase H2B visas for seasonal
workers, saying the Maryland crab harvest, which starts in May, is at risk.
The 66,000-visa limit was filled by winter workers on Jan. 3 -- leaving summer
workers without visas.
Mikulski's amendment would grant visas to workers
who received such short- term visas during the past two years. Small
businesses have been clamoring for relief, saying they cannot find U.S.
workers for summer jobs for everything from fighting forest fires in the West
to serving guests at Great Lakes' resort hotels and without the change
couldn't hire foreign workers either.
"We have companies that have been around for 100
years working in the Chesapeake Bay," Mikulski said. "If they can't start to
hire in the next few weeks, we're going to close American companies."
An estimated 10 million to 13 million undocumented
immigrants now reside in the United States, filling jobs across a range of
industries.
All agree such immigrants are breaking the law,
but reform proponents contend that the current system fails to provide
adequate legal avenues to work, which creates a huge illegal population and
makes the law unenforceable.
"It's like having a speed limit of 25 mph and
saying, 'Gee, no one's going 25.' Because it's illogical, like Prohibition was
illogical. It's dysfunctional," said Judy Golub, a lobbyist for the American
Immigration Lawyers Association, an immigrant advocacy group.
Craig said that as long as the law fails to
"create a reasonable pathway forward for a workforce to be legal and a
workforce that is necessary in this country," there will never be enough
Border Patrol, "unless they are arm length to arm length from the Gulf of
Mexico to San Diego, and even then, those folks have to sleep."
Opponents insist that the answer to law breaking
is law enforcement.
"Without that enforcement, no matter what changes
we make in our current law, we will be right back here discussing Amnesty III
for agricultural farmworkers before this decade is out," said Sessions.
The immigration issue became part of the Senate's
debate over the war appropriation because the House passed the "Real ID Act"
as part of its version of the bill.
House Republican leaders say it must remain in the
military spending bill and many believe it is unlikely the Senate will kill
it.
The Real ID measure would set a national standard
for driver's licenses, now entirely a state function, and require that
applicants prove they are legal U.S. residents.
President Bush proposed a sweeping immigration
reform last year based on a guest worker program. It has found little support
among House Republicans.
Bush reiterated his pledge to overhaul U.S.
immigration at a March 3 summit in Waco, Texas, with the leaders of Mexico and
Canada. His stand has brought rare praise from liberal advocates. Marshall
Fitz, a lobbyist for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, called
Bush's approach courageous, given the hostility among many Republicans.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is expected to join
Kennedy to introduce a comprehensive bill in several weeks.
"Enough people know that something needs to be
done," said Craig's spokesman Dan Whiting. "But there are other opponents with
their heads in sand who aren't offering any alternatives to the problem, which
is to provide a stable workforce for jobs Americans don't want to do."
