Trip To The Middle On Immigration

From IBD:
Posted 6/21/2006

The Border: House Republicans are hitting the road to hear from voters and make a point about compromise — namely, that the Senate and president need to bend. Step One is to drop the citizenship track.

The Republican leaders' plan to hold hearings on immigration reform in congressional districts this summer is (pick one) a stalling tactic, a power play, a kickoff of re-election campaigns or all of the above.

In any case, it's smart. The enforcement-focused House members will hear the public's views, and they are likely to find most of the public on their side, especially on the question of granting eventual citizenship to illegal immigrants.

In the eyes of most House Republicans, any citizenship track for illegals amounts to "amnesty." It may be true that the plan in the Senate reform bill (supported in general terms by President Bush) is something less than amnesty as the dictionary defines it, but it does reward people who broke the law.

Whatever you call it, any bill that gives illegals a shot at citizenship while forcing the law-abiding to wait their turn is a moral stumbling block.

House members can expect many of their constituents to speak out against this "amnesty" in the August field hearings, but they have probably heard these views plenty of times already. The real impact will be on others, such as Bush and most senators, who may have underestimated the depth of public feeling. If they listen well this summer, they may come to see just what's standing in the way of compromise.

Then, if they want a bill by November, they'll be ready to meet the House halfway.

The basic requirements of such a compromise are no mystery. The first step is to set aside the idea of granting eventual citizenship to most of the 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants who are in this country. The scheme approved by the Senate, which would sort the illegals into three levels of eligibility according to how long they have lived in the U.S., would not be workable even if the public approved of it. The Senate also needs to accept the House's priorities.

Whatever is done as part of a comprehensive plan, nothing can go forward unless the border-security provisions are in place.

For its part, the House needs to accept the need for a guest-worker program. A strict rule against hiring illegal immigrants is unworkable (and will be widely ignored, as was the 1986 reform law) without some provision to meet the labor needs of industry and agriculture.

Rep. Mike Pence, the influential chairman of the House Republican Study Committee, has already put one such plan on the table, and there may be others. Pence's plan would have illegal workers go across the border to privately run "Ellis Island" centers to be matched with employers who need their services.

After that, they could work here legally for three years, with the possibility of renewing their legal status for another three years as long as they've learned English.

This is not "amnesty" by any reasonable definition, though some may still see it that way. It would convert most working illegal immigrants to strictly temporary residents and leave the reward of citizenship to others.

Bush ought to find such a plan acceptable, since he has been pushing for a guest-worker program all along. At least a few Senate Democrats would probably make the same decision, if only out of political prudence.

After all, if the Republicans close ranks around a reform plan without a citizenship track, Democrats can only stop it with a filibuster. In the process, they would be obstructing a border-security bill that clearly carries out the public's wishes.

Only those in the safest of safe seats would try something that reckless.