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US Senate to Make New
Try at Immigration Law After Record Protests Agence France-Presse |
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The US Senate will make a new attempt this month to agree on immigration
reforms, a top Republican said after more than one million people demonstrated
for immigrant rights.
Senator Bill Frist said the upper chamber could
consider the issue again in two weeks, after having failed in April to bridge
broad differences over proposals to give 11.5 million illegal immigrants legal
status.
But Frist, leader of the Republican majority in
the chamber, said he wanted the new legislation to concentrate on tightening
border security against illegal entrants and not offer an amnesty to them.
Huge protests in recent weeks by mainly Hispanic groups hit a new peak
Monday with a one-day economic boycott and street protests across the
At least 600,000 people took part in two major rallies in
Hispanic groups also called a one day strike, for children to be withdrawn from
school and a boycott of stores to show the economic weight of the immigrant
community.
"Today we march, tomorrow we vote and if they deport us we will jump
over the border fence," chanted marchers in
Frist partly acknowledged the point of the
boycott: "We know that many of our states and economies are very dependent
on legal immigrants for work."
But he said he will back reform "that starts by tightening our
borders" and includes "a strong interior enforcement programme", as well as a temporary worker program.
As for the army of illegal immigrants, Frist said:
"We don't know who they are. They're in the shadows and we need to devise
a plan to bring them out of the shadows, short of amnesty, but treats them in a
fair and compassionate way."
But Harry Reid, leader of the opposition Democrats in the Senate, who mostly
favor an amnesty program, showed the body remains divided.
"Every day we wait to fix our immigration system, the situation gets
worse," Reid said.
President George W. Bush has sought for more than two years to pass an
immigration reform bill that would regularize the inflow of illegal workers
with a temporary worker program.
Last week Bush met with senators seeking to squeeze out a compromise, but he
met with strong resistance from members of his own Republican party who are
facing elections in November and voters angered by the large number of illegal
immigrants and the demonstrations on their behalf.
Republican congressman Tom Tancredo told Fox television that the average
American does not accept it when they see on the streets "people demanding
that they have rights, that they should be entitled to things that other people
who have done it the right way ... even though they snuck into the
country."
Even if the Senate comes to a compromise over the immigration issue, it will
still have to square any measure with a hardline
draft law already passed by the House of Representatives that would make
illegal entry, and helping illegal immigrants, a crime.
People in the
"They expressed frustration with the idea of granting those that are
here illegally amnesty," Boehner said.