WASHINGTON (ABP)—As Congress begins to take up immigration-reform proposals, some Christian immigration activists say there is no perfect legislation in the pipeline. But time is of the essence in getting something passed, nonetheless, they insist.
A reform bill with broad bipartisan support already has been introduced in the House. The Senate is likely to begin its consideration of the issue in May.
The House bill, H.R. 1645, is known as the Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy Act of 2007, or the STRIVE Act. Its chief sponsors are Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill.
A similar bill passed the Senate last year with broad support. However, the Republican leaders then in charge of the House pushed through a competing measure that took a hard line on immigration. The two chambers couldn't reconcile their differences, and the bill died with the end of the 109th Congress.
With the House's new Democratic leaders more amenable to broader immigration reform, immigrant advocates are hoping a compromise bill can pass both chambers and gain President Bush's signature. Bush broke with many immigration hard-liners in his own party last year by signaling White House support for aspects of reform sought by advocates for the millions of undocumented laborers already working in the United States.
Bush has begun to outline his own proposal for passing immigration reform in this session of Congress. However, according to the Kevin Appleby of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bush's proposal “is just a non-starter as far as we are concerned.”
Appleby, who serves as director of immigration policy for American Catholics, said Bush's proposals include enforcement provisions that are too harsh for many immigrants. For example, he noted, like the STRIVE Act, it would assess a penalty for workers who have been breaking the law by living and working in the United States illegally. However, he said, the Bush plan's fines would be “exorbitant”—$64,000 and 25 years for a family of five to obtain green cards, for instance.
The White House plan “eviscerates family provisions,” harming the family fabric of many immigrant families, for whom living with extended family members is much more a part of their culture than in Anglo societies, Appleby maintained.
Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., was the chief sponsor of last year's Senate version of immigration reform. A spokesperson in his Senate office said she couldn't give details of what he would propose this time around because Kennedy and his colleagues still were hammering out details. However, she noted Kennedy was “very supportive of the STRIVE Act in the House.”
The Catholic bishops' conference's Appleby said the STRIVE Act has “some enforcement provisions that give us some heartburn”—such as passport-fraud provisions that he said could hurt asylum-seekers from troubled countries.
But, he continued, it was a better bill. “Overall, though, we can hopefully get some changes in those things as we move forward and get a good bill,” he said.
The time is ripe to pass immigration reform this year, Appleby said. As the 2008 elections begin to loom, he noted, “the conventional wisdom” is that political pressures will prevent Congress from moving aggressively on such a volatile issue in the heat of the campaign season.
Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, in a recent press statement, said he was dissatisfied with the options.
“Each of the bills falls short in some critical areas,” he said.
“Senate measures have been too lenient and have not adequately addressed border security. (Last year's) House bill … was inadequate in that it focused almost exclusively on border security and failed to position the government to deal ‘realistically with the immigration crisis in a way that would restore trust among the citizenry,'” Land continued, quoting language from a resolution on immigration reform that messengers to the 2006 SBC annual meeting passed.
However, Land appeared at a March 29 Capitol Hill press conference with Kennedy, the sponsors of the STRIVE Act and Latino Christian leaders to push for reform.
Suzii Paynter, director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Christian Life Commission, believes the bills proposed in the House provide hope immigration reform can happen. The legislation proposed in the House is closer to what the Senate proposed last year, she said.
“Even though the solutions proposed in the House and Senate legislation are not the same, at least the House and Senate bills are talking about the same issues,” she said.