The Amnesty Road Gets Difficult

Amnesty legislation continues to move forward in Congress, but the road is difficult. One great problem is that Democratic amnesty supporters want a very liberal bill, but they need Republican support. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said that she would not attempt to pass a bill in the House without at least 70 Republican supporters.

The Bush Administration is trying to line up GOP backing for amnesty, but to do so it must propose measures less liberal than what the Democrats prefer. At present, the administration is floating a plan which would allow illegal aliens to apply for 3-year "Z visas" for a fee of $3,500. These visas, allowing legal residence, could be renewed indefinitely with payment of the fee. If the illegal alien wishes to seek citizenship, he would have to return to his home country, make an application, and pay a fee of $10,000. Democrats, in their turn, have denounced the fees as excessively harsh.

Trying to strike an optimistic pose for amnesty, Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) said that the amnesty bill he is co-sponsoring with Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-CA) has better than a 50-50 chance of passing the House this year. Their bill, H.R. 1645, would offer legal status to illegals, here before June 1, 2006, who pay a fine of $2,000 and some back taxes, and meet other requirements. Flake concedes, however, that time for passage is limited due to the approaching 2008 campaign season. "We have a window of four or five months," said the congressman, "and if it doesn't happen now, it won't for a couple of years."

The Republican-Democrat impasse and Flake's latter comment offer encouragement to genuine immigration reformers who oppose any plan to reward lawbreakers with permanent residence and citizenship. At the beginning of the year, some observers believed that Congress by this time would have passed an amnesty bill, or would have been close to doing so. Now, say forecasters, the Senate won't consider one until late May and the House won't until July.

Intense public opposition to amnesty has helped to make the road difficult. If reformers can keep up their opposition for just a little longer, time for amnesty may run out.