Frist: Immig. In Feb.
Sen. Maj. Leader Bill Frist, who is angling to play a lead role when the Senate considers immigration legislation in '06, said today he plans to bring a border security bill to the floor in Feb.
Frist is sympathetic to President Bush's view that American ought to welcome and enhance legal immigration, but aides say he sees both a practical and political need to address border security gaps first.
Frist helped to ensure that next year's homeland security budget contained funding for about 1,000 new border patrol agents.
His announcement comes the day that President Bush began a series of high-profile border visits and a few days after Sen. Arlen Specter dropped word of his own immigration principles, one of which would increase the number of green cards granted by the government. Specter's ideas are broadly supported by the GOP's high-dollar donor base and most corporate lobbyists.
The base, particularly in the Southwest and in exurban communities in the rest of the country, seems to want tough enforcement proposals that do not allow for "amnesty," a scare word in the immigration political lexicon.
What strategists don't know is whether the base will punish GOPers if they don't take a hard line on immigration. Some, like conservative Paul Weyrich, think they will. But anecdotal evidence and recent elections suggest that they will not.
Bush has hinted that he would be amenable to the legislation introduced by Sens. John Cornyn and Jon Kyl that would forbid recently deported undocumented immigrations from re-applying for citizenship for as many as ten years after they return to their home countries. The bill would expand temporary work visas but keep their length to two years.
That Bush favors the A word was forgiven by many Republicans in '04, but Republican strategists, even those sympathetic to expanding legal immigration, have concluded that a successful GOP presidential candidate needs to be seen by voters as tough on border enforcement, first and foremost.
From a Frist statement: "We can no longer compromise America's border security, allowing potentially dangerous individuals and materials to slip freely across the border and into our country.....Having personally witnessed the challenges of maintaining safe and secure borders, I know that we must act swiftly to confront the challenges along America's porous borders. That's why the Senate will make strengthening our nation's frontline defenses a top priority in the second session of the 109th Congress, and I plan on bringing up border security reform legislation as a primary legislative item in February." [MARC AMBINDER]
Any guest worker program must require employers to provide insurance for these workers & their families with the employees paying up to 25% of the costs.
I called his office and he has not issued a statement on his stance. That sort of bugged the crap out of me. You would think he would have some sort of a stance on this issue.