WASHINGTON - Supporters of bipartisan immigration legislation smoothed the way Friday for likely Senate passage, overcoming last-minute disagreements at the bill’s core and tacking on other items certain to build support.
A test vote was set for Monday on the bill, which calls for a military-style “surge” of personnel to increase security at the U.S-Mexican border. At the same time, it sets out a 13-year pathway to citizenship for millions of people living in the United States unlawfully.
The bill’s critics made no claim they could block it in the Senate, but said their position would be vindicated in the long run.
Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama said the measure’s claims of border security were no different from previous assurances. “Time and again, politicians have promised, promised, promised. But they never delivered, delivered, delivered. And that’s a fact,” he said.
With immigration at the top of President Barack Obama’s second-term domestic agenda, White House spokesman Jay Carney labeled the Senate agreement a breakthrough. He refrained
Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska became the 11th Republican to announce her support for the legislation in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Some Democrats said a heavy show of support at the end of next week could alter the bill’s trajectory in the House, where majority Republicans strongly oppose citizenship for people who came to the country illegally or overstayed their visas.
“Hopefully as congressmen look how their senators voted, they will be influenced by it,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who has played a major role for Democrats on the issue.
from issuing an outright endorsement of the legislation, even though Cabinet secretaries were consulted on some portions of it and administration officials drafted others.
The day’s developments marked a victory for the Senate’s so-called Gang of Eight, four Democrats and four Republicans who spent months working out the basic framework of immigration legislation. They then warded off unwanted changes in the Senate Judiciary Committee last month and, in recent days, negotiated significant alterations with a group of Republicans who were un-committed but willing to swing behind the bill if it were changed.
The principal demand was for tougher border security, particularly after the Congressional Budget Office estimated this week that the bill would fail to prevent a future buildup in the population of people in the country illegally.
Republican Sens. John Hoeven of North Dakota and Bob Corker of Tennessee, who had spent about a week negotiating with members of the Gang of Eight for changes, announced the agreement Thursday. A day later, Corker said in the Senate the bill is a chance to deal with “the issues of security many of our citizens across the country care about, but at the same time allow 11 million people to come out of the shadows and work in the light and be a part of this great, great nation.”
The result of the negotiations was a series of expensive and highly detailed steps to guard against future illegal immigration across the 2,000-mile border with Mexico.
For the so-called Yuma and Tucson sectors in Arizona, for example, the bill requires installation of 50 fixed towers; 73 fixed camera systems; 28 mobile surveillance systems; 685 unattended ground sensors, including seismic, imaging and infrared; and 22 hand-held devices, including thermal imaging systems and night-vision goggles.
There are similar specifications for points of entry from Mexico. At the one in San Diego, the government is mandated to install two nonintrusive inspection systems; one radiation monitor and one detection and classification network.
The legislation also requires a doubling of the Border Patrol, with the hiring of 20,000 new agents, the purchase of 12 new unmannedsurveillance drones and the construction of 350 miles of new fencing, raise the total to 700 miles.
Other provisions in the bill would require employers to verify the legal status of their workers, before they are hired and then periodically afterward. A biometric system would be phased in at 30 airport crossings to track the comings and goings of foreigners.
The measure also creates a chance at citizenship for people who are in the country illegally, sets up a new temporary program for farmworkers, and new visa programs for workers recruited for the technology industry and those of lesser skills.
The new security provisions would be put in place over a decade, in line with the 10-year path to a permanent resident green card that the bill sets out for people in the U.S. illegally. During that time, they could live and work legally in a provisional status.
Hoeven said the 10-year cost of the border-security amendment included $25 billion for the additional Border Patrol agents, $3 billion for fencing and $3.2 billion for other measures.
“The amendment will put to rest any remaining concerns about the border, about border security,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
The plan was praised by Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a Republican co-sponsor of the bill who had said he wouldn’t support the measure that emerged last month from the Senate Judiciary Committee without more stringent border control.
“What this amendment reflects is what we know will work,” Rubio said. “We know that adding border patrol agents, doubling the size of the border force, will work.”
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said on Fox News Channel that “if there’s anyone who still will argue that the border is not secure after this, then border security is not their reason for opposing a path to citizenship for the people who are in this country illegally.”
“Is it more than I wouldhave recommended? Honestly, yes,” said McCain, a co-sponsor of the provision. “But we’ve got to give people confidence.”
Corker said the proposal “brings on at least 15 Republicans, and I think momentum is building.”
The breakthrough on border security came when the Congressional Budget Office released a report Tuesday finding that the bill would cut billions of dollars from the deficit. Schumer’s top immigration aide, Leon Fresco, had the idea of devoting some of those billions to the border buildup.
Graham, who helped run interference between Corker and Hoeven and Democrats in the group, said that with the budget office finding in hand, he sat down with Schumer and Corker and said, “OK, let’s go big.”
The compromise drew criticism from Republican Sens. Charles Grassley of Iowa, Ted Cruz of Texas, David Vitter of Louisiana and Mike Lee of Utah, who said it wouldn’t do enough to ensure the border is secure.
Vitter told reporters that the agreement was designed “to pass the bill, not to fix the bill.”
“This is an attempt to pull out of the fire a bill that has been weakening,” Sessions said.
As part of late negotiations, the bill makes clear that no illegal aliens can get credit for payroll taxes paid when they lacked legal status. Credits are used to determine the level of Social Security benefits workers are entitled to in retirement.
Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah indicated his support for the overall bill after the border-security amendment was beefed up to include versions of his proposals to prohibit noncitizens who gain legal status from obtaining welfare benefits and to specify that unauthorized employment can’t count toward eligibilityfor Social Security benefits.
Hatch said he will push for a separate vote on his proposal requiring illegal aliens to pay back-taxes to qualify for temporary legal status.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, aVermont independent, joined by several Democrats, secured a $1.5 billion temporary jobs program for youths from low-income families. The funds will come from a temporary $10 surcharge imposed on visa applications from companies hiring guest workers and international workers who receive green cards.
Two provisions designed to aid Alaska seafood processors were backed by the state’s senators, Democrat Mark Begich as well as Murkowski. The first permits the companies to hire foreign students visiting the U.S. on so-called J-1 visas. The effect is to overturn a recent ruling by the departments of State and Labor that banned the practice. The second declares Alaska fish processing as a “shortage occupation,” which would expedite the industry’s ability to recruit seasonal workers outside theU.S. through a new W visa program set up in the bill.
Information for this article was contributed by David Espo and Erica Werner of The Associated Press and by Kathleen Hunter, Laura Litvan and Roxana Tiron of Bloomberg News.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 06/22/2013