Immigration bill lacks area support in Senate
Chattanooga Times Free Press
By Herman Wang and Karina Gonzalez
Staff Writers

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate leaders planning to revive a comprehensive immigration reform bill today will have to do so without the support of the four senators from Tennessee and Georgia, who have made it clear they oppose it.The White House-backed bill faces a key vote today on whether the Senate will bring it back to the floor, with 60 votes needed, an uncertain prospect.

“I truly do not see any way that I’ll be supporting this bill,” said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. “I think the (Bush) administration, working with leadership, is trying to tally votes, and there will be a number of amendments that are coming forth. They understand that we will not be with them.”

Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., withdrew the bill June 7 after two weeks of debate generated no consensus on the number of amendments to attach. The legislation, dubbed the “Grand Compromise,” would provide a pathway to citizenship for some 12 million illegal immigrants already in the country while strengthening border security.

Oscar Valdez, a Mexico native who has lived in the United States for 13 years, said the Hispanic community is hoping for a bill that will allow immigrants to legalize their status. Mr. Valdez still is waiting for his green card after his father, a naturalized citizen, petitioned on his behalf 10 years ago.

“People are waiting; everyone is, those who have family and others for themselves,” Mr. Valdez said. “For me, there is no hope but to wait. I have been here for so long. I have a family and a life here. I’ve learned the language and the laws of this country, and I want to fully integrate.”

D.A. King, of the Dustin Inman Society, a Marietta, Ga.-based group that pushes for tighter control of the border and stricter enforcement of immigration law, said the proposal is another amnesty bill and that American citizens in Georgia are opposed to it.

“Of the thousands of Georgians that I have spoken to, virtually all regard the Bush-Kennedy legislation as a repeat of the amnesty of 1986,” Mr. King said in an e-mail. “I have heard from no one who is in favor of the bill, the lack of any committee hearing on it or the fact that the Georgia senators helped craft the legislation. They both would have been committing political suicide had they continued defending the ‘Grand Compromise’ on our border security.”

The version of the bill up for the cloture vote today includes a provision, agreed to by Senate leaders last week, that would boost funding for border security and workplace enforcement by $4.4 billion. It also will include some two dozen amendments, a compromise between Democratic leadership and Republican lawmakers, who had wanted significantly more to be considered.

Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, both R-Ga., had been among a bipartisan coalition that helped draft the original bill, but they since have backed off their support amid growing criticism from Republican constituents back home…more here.