Illegal Immigration: It pulls at our heartstrings and our purse strings

In December, the House passed, by 239-182 vote, House Resolution 4437 sponsored by Representative F. Sensenbrenner (R-WI) a bill making it a federal felony, with criminal penalties, to live in the United States illegally or to help illegal immigrants enter or stay in the country. It also requires the construction of 700 miles of fence along the US-Mexico border and the hiring of additional Border Patrol agents and Port of Entry Inspectors. It includes no provisions for the legalization of undocumented immigrants or a temporary worker program.
In May the Senate has passed, by 62-36 vote, its own bill, Senate Bill 2611 sponsored by Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), which unlike the House gives some illegal immigrants a path to eventual citizenship and creates a guest worker program. The proposed guest worker program, something akin to what President Bush has been advocating for over the last two years, allows 200,000 foreign guest workers to be admitted annually and provides a path to legal permanent residence for these guest workers.

The Senate bill imposes penalties for smuggling aliens, like the house bill, but offers exceptions for those who provide humanitarian assistance to illegal immigrants including medical care and housing. It also provides for the construction of 350 miles of fence along the US-Mexico border and the hiring of 2,400 new Border Patrol agents each year through 2011. The Senate bill also would declare English as the country’s national language.

The path to citizenship the Senate bill sets up is a complicated three-tier system for determining which illegal immigrants can stay and which must leave. It also allots more federal jail cells for those waiting deportation. The first tier is those immigrants who have been here for five or more years; these illegal immigrants will be allowed to stay and apply for citizenship provided they have no serious criminal record, pay their back taxes, and learn English, our new national language. The second tier consists of those immigrants who have been here two to five years, who would have to return to their home country and apply for a green card that they would be given priority in obtaining. This could allow for their immediate return. The roughly 2 million immigrants who have been in this country for less than two years would be ordered home and subject to deportation.

The Senate bill does require that illegal immigrants convicted of a felony or three misdemeanors to be deported regardless of years in residence. Most reasonable people in and outside of the beltway understand that it would be nearly impossible to round up and deport two million illegal immigrants, as the Senate bill proposes. Though that task is much less formidable than empting the country entirely of illegal immigrants, a job six times as big, as the House bill proposes.

The bill will spend the next month in a House-Senate conference committee, where Senators and Representatives will try to rewrite the bill in a manner both chambers will approve. However, the chances of reaching an agreement seem slim; many Republican house members refuse to consider legalizing immigrants until illegal border crossings are dramatically reduced, while many senate Democrats refuse to crack down on illegal immigration without a mechanism for some illegal immigrants who have been living here for years to achieve legal status.