The contentious issue of immigration reform threatened to hold up Senate action Wednesday on a $80 billion plus spending bill for the U.S. effort in Iraq, a harbinger of the difficult debate to come.
Senate Republican leaders, mindful of the differing and strong opinions lawmakers have on immigration, have wanted to avoid having any immigration provisions added to the Iraq bill. But that plan derailed Wednesday when:
Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said she planned to offer an amendment that would expand the number of H-2B temporary guest worker visas available in an effort to help the fishing and tourism industries in her state and others;
Sen. Larry Craig., R-Idaho, could not be talked out of trying to add AgJobs, a farm worker measure that would create a new temporary guest worker program that offered the prospect of legalization and eventual citizenship to migrant workers.
When word spread that such additions might be in the wind, Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, authored a non-binding resolution that no such measures be added. It passed 61-38. But almost immediately after that resolution passed, the immigration provisions began to be offered. More of the same is expected today.
Feinstein was particularly upset at the notion that AgJobs could be considered now.
"This is going to be a huge magnet" for illegal immigrants, Feinstein warned her colleagues during an impassioned floor speech. "Mark my words." That measure, she said, "could bring millions of people into this country - workers, their spouses, their minor children."
Feinstein said bills like AgJobs should go through the traditional committee hearing and debate process.
Dear God, I am agreeing with Dianne Feinstein, and am shocked that she is speaking out for actually doing the correct and upright thing for once...holy cats, it must be the living end!!!
I am really shocked with Craig, who should be villified for adding the horrendous "greencards for everybody" debacle that is AgJobs...Who has he been listening to, that idiot Pelosi? (see WMD archives for more details)
Corryn, however, knows what we should really be focusing on:
Cornyn, who chairs the immigration subcommittee, promised his panel would tackle immigration reform this year. But he implored colleagues not to allow an immigration debate to "bog down this emergency supplemental appropriations bill to equip our troops with what they need."
