Senate may be warming to House’s 'enforcement first’ approach

June 30, 2006

Inaction on immigration could hurt Republicans in the November election, and that concern has Senate Republican leaders considering how to revive immigration legislation and cut a deal with the more hard-line House.

For months, House and Senate Republicans have steadfastly defended their respective positions, with the House insisting on tougher border and deportation provisions only, and. the Senate, allied with President Bush, demanding that a crackdown be coupled with amnesty provisions.

The House appears to be winning the standoff. Speaker Dennis Hastert announced in June that the House would hold field hearings on immigration through the summer, all but guaranteeing that a bill could not be completed until after the election.

In recent days, senators and the White House have dropped hints that they are willing to move closer to the House's position. Senators are now considering a two-phase plan beginning with construction of triple-layer walls, deployment of surveillance aircraft and other means of tightening the border with Mexico.

After those measures are fully funded and operational, which could take as much as two years, debate on some version of the Senate's broader proposals would begin.

In the last week of June, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), told CNN, 'I think everybody agrees that securing the border is number one. . . . We're prepared to commit to secure borders. We have got to have a timetable on the rest of it, as well.'

The House has scheduled its first field hearings on immigration in early July in San Diego and in Laredo, Tex. Specter scheduled his own field hearing in Philadelphia, on July 5, and invited Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.), one of the chief Democratic sponsors of the Senate approach, to join him.

House GOP leaders interpreted the Senate overtures as vindication of their tougher stance.

'I've really been rather encouraged about what's happened over the last several days with regard to the issue of immigration,' said House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio).