Enforce US Border First, Conservatives Tell Bush

Since 06-21-06

By Sarah Larkins
CNSNews.com Correspondent

June 21, 2006

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=/Politics/archive/200606/POL20060621a.html

(CNSNews.com) - President Bush received another blunt reminder this week about the dissension within his own party over the issue of illegal immigration.

Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former U.S. Education Secretary William Bennett and former U.S. Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork joined with 38 other conservative leaders in urging Bush and the current Republican leadership in Congress to enforce the U.S. southern border before reforming the immigration system.

A letter, signed by the conservative leaders and addressed to the president, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) states that "border and interior enforcement must be funded, operational, implemented, and proven successful" before the debate can shift to current illegal immigrants and the need for new guest worker programs.

"We need proof that enforcement (both at the border and in the interior) is successful before anything else happens," the letter declares.

"The debate is among Republicans," John Fonte, senior fellow and director of the Center of American Common Culture at the Hudson Institute and organizer of the letter, told Cybercast News Service. "The White House is on one side, 85 percent of congressional Republicans are on the other."

Some Democrats, 36 in the House and four in the Senate, also support enforcement first, Fonte said.

"[The letter's] purpose is to strengthen the hand of the people who are interested in the enforcement of America's borders first," Fonte said. "Do the enforcement; let's see if that works, then we'll talk about the other stuff."

The letter from the conservative leaders also labels the 1986 immigration reform law a "mistake."

That series of reforms, according to the letter, "included amnesty for around 3 million illegal immigrants, border enforcement and interior enforcement."

"Amnesty came, but enforcement was never seriously implemented either at the border or in the interior," the conservative leaders state in their letter.

"[Enforcement] didn't happen," Fonte said. "We don't want to be fooled again. This time we're saying, trust, but verify. Let's see enforcement. Let's make sure it's proven and then we'll discuss the other stuff."

In May, the Senate passed the Hagel-Martinez immigration reform bill, which would establish a temporary guest-worker program and grant permanent resident status for qualifying immigrants who have been living and working in the United States for five years. The House passed a tougher version of immigration reform in 2005. That bill would make illegal presence in the U.S. a crime and subject those who harbor illegal aliens to a criminal penalty as well.

As Cybercast News Service previously reported, Speaker Hastert argued in March that border protection should be the first priority in handling the illegal immigration problem, but that a guest-worker program was also needed for some sectors of the U.S. economy.

Frist shares Hastert's view.

"Senator Frist believes that border security is the most important piece of immigration reform, and has said that continuously," Carolyn Weyforth, spokesperson for Frist, told Cybercast News Service in an e-mail response. "However, he does think that we need comprehensive reform in order to effectively deal with border security, employer enforcement and the 12 million illegal immigrants in our country."

Fonte said the letter should strengthen an issue that affects all Americans.

"This is about strengthening America, it's about border enforcement, it's about protecting America, so all Americans should be interested," Fonte said.