February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Many attorneys and immigrant advocates argue that the bill will criminalize people whose only crime is wanting to build a new life in America.
It should be remembered that a House bill alone is not the final say in the matter. The Senate and President Bush will each have their day to deal with border control and, we expect, comprehensive immigration reform as well.
The House bill, jointly authored by Reps. James Sensenbrenner and Peter King, looks set to pass in a vote by week’s end. It will then stand alone as the sole immigration law reform proposal passed by an arm of the 109th Congress.
This is not in itself a bad thing because an approved bill tends to be more exposed to the questioning eyes of the American public.
Congressman King, in an interview with this paper, sought to soothe Irish concerns this week as he acknowledged that House action would not be the final word in the matter.
His bill, he said, was of necessity concerned solely with border security and enforcement of immigration law.
He indicated that he was not hostile to immigrants or immigration and was prepared to consider guest worker visas and even the “earned legalization” plan contained in the McCain/Kennedy Senate bill.
This is reassuring, at least to a degree.
But there are other legislators in Congress who are not so prepared to strike a balance between security and the need for a sane and sensible solution to the immigration problems the U.S. presently faces.
Working a comprehensive deal will require imagination and a fair deal of political savvy.
King lacks neither. He has been a friend to the Irish over many years. We need that friendship and goodwill anew in the jittery weeks ahead.