Liberia: Citizens On TPs May Get Alternative

The Inquirer (Monrovia)

March 26, 2007
Posted to the web March 26, 2007

A new immigration reform bill introduced in the United States House of Representatives on Thursday tries to duck the partisan stalemate that doomed similar legislation last year by being tougher in some ways and more generous in others for immigrants and employers alike.

According to reports, if the bill passes both House and Senate, it could provide an alternative option for thousands of Liberians who would be affected when the Temporary Protection Status (TPS) runs out in September this year.

The bill would delay any new benefits for foreign workers until the federal government has improved border security. It also would require undocumented immigrants to leave the U.S. briefly and re-enter before they would be eligible for citizenship.

The report said those requirements would be balanced against the promise of legal status for about 12 million people living here illegally now, along with an easier system for employers to verify that workers are eligible for jobs and a new visa allowing up to 400,000 foreign workers to come here each year.

Supporters hope that, taken together, the bill's provisions will break years of deadlock over immigration by drawing support from both Democrats and Republicans. A similar bill the Senate passed last year stalled in the run-up to mid-term elections.

"This bill will end illegal immigration," said Rep. Jeff Flake, a Republican from Arizona, who is the proposal's chief co-sponsor along with Rep. Luis Gutierrez, Democrat from Illinois. Rep. Flake noted that a sweeping immigration reform measure adopted in 1986 did not accomplish that goal.

Supporters of immigration reform believe they have their best chance of passing legislation in years with Democrats in control of Congress and the White House pressing hard for GOP allies to sign on to the bill. But difficulties lie ahead for reformers, who had expected the Senate to take up immigration well before the House did.

Negotiations in the Senate have bogged down as Republicans work with the White House to craft a proposal that can attract wide GOP support.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Democrat from Massachusetts, is still talking with Sen. John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, his chief partner on immigration reform in recent years, but they haven't come to an agreement.

Sen. McCain, who is running for president, has heard widespread criticism on immigration from Republican voters. He said recently that supporters of last year's bill didn't focus enough on border security when they talked about the legislation.

"Last year, we beat the odds in the Senate by passing a bipartisan immigration bill - and I'm confident we'll do so again in the coming weeks," Kennedy said in a statement Thursday.

Few people had read the entire 700-page proposal Thursday, but lobbyists, community activists and Democratic leaders in Congress mostly called it promising.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California., said the new bill provides "an excellent framework" for immigration legislation.

Community organizers behind many of last spring's massive immigration protest marches said they hope the bill will help move the debate along. A requirement that undocumented immigrants leave the country and re-enter legally proved controversial when it was added to last year's Senate bill, but advocates for immigrants said they could live with it if it helps ease the bill's passage.

Immigrants seeking legal status would have six years to comply, and they could leave and return through any border entry point without going back to their home countries.

"Nothing in the outlines appears to be a deal-breaker yet," said John Gay, a senior vice president at the National Restaurant Association, one of several powerful business groups pushing for reform. But the tougher provisions added to the bill did little to placate longtime critics.

"They keep changing the shade of lipstick but like I've said time and time again, it's still the same old pig," said Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Republican from Colorado, who is running for the GOP presidential nomination on a fiercely anti-illegal immigration platform.

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a group based in Phoenix that patrols the border looking for undocumented immigrants, called the bill a "lawbreaker assistance program."