Bush sees election day results as an opportunity to pass amnesty legislation

November 9, 2006

President Bush expects to team up with Democrats to pass his immigration bill with a guest-worker program that his own party blocked this year. Republican opponents predicted a bloody intraparty fight but said they cannot stop such a bill from passing.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, Colorado Republican and chairman of the House Immigration Reform Caucus, who had led the opposition to a guest-worker plan, said “"We will fight it, we will lose. It will go to the Senate, it will pass. The president will sign it. And it will happen quickly because that's one thing they know they can pass.” “I am absolutely horrified by this prospect, but I have to face reality," he added

Earlier this year, Bush supported a bipartisan majority in the Senate which had proposed and passed a broad immigration bill including a new worker program and citizenship rights for millions of illegal aliens. But House Republicans blocked the effort, calling them an amnesty, and instead forcing through a bill to erect nearly 700 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Tuesday's elections removed that obstacle by turning control of the House over to Democrats.

Yesterday, in an afternoon press conference, the president said he shares Democrats' vision on immigration and will try again for a broad bill. "There's an issue where I believe we can find some common ground with the Democrats," he said.

Reuters news agency reported that Mexican President Vicente Fox cheered  the U.S. Democrats' success, saying it improves chances for getting a bill done.

Democrats said the issue's time has come. "With alignment now in Congress and the White House, this is a unique opportunity," said Rep. Howard L. Berman, California Democrat, a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee and a leader on the issue.

He said there are a number of House Republicans who thought their enforcement approach was bad policy but good politics. He said that belief was shattered by Tuesday's elections with the loss of two Republicans in Arizona -- Randy Graf, a candidate for a seat near Tucson, and Rep. J.D. Hayworth, an incumbent from Scottsdale. Both ran heavily on opposition to a guest-worker program.

Other losses included Rep. John Hostettler, the Indiana Republican who was chairman of the immigration subcommittee, and Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, who ran heavily on border security, hoping the issue could save him.

There are still some big hurdles to a bill passing.

While Bush and most Democrats agree that many illegal aliens should have a regular legal status, a key sticking point is whether future workers will also have a chance at citizenship. The Senate bill allowed citizenship rights for those workers, but Bush has consistently rejected that.

Immigration also could get bogged down in 2008 presidential politics.

Tancredo has been considering a run for the Republican nomination in 2008, and said yesterday he has not made a decision. But he said pundits will take the wrong lesson from his party's election-night losses.

"The results of this election, although they did not occur as a result of the immigration issue, will negatively affect our cause more than anybody ever anticipated," he said.

Rep. Steve King, an Iowa Republican who wants a crackdown on illegal immigration and opposes a guest-worker plan, said Republicans didn't lose because of immigration but in spite of it.

He said Santorum came late to the issue and "it looked like it was a political position for him rather than a conviction." As for Graf, he had to fight both Democrats and Republicans, who poured money into the race trying to defeat him in the primary.

"We know where the polls are; we saw the Democrats run on border security," King said.

He vowed to redouble his efforts to fight a guest-worker bill, but said he also sees Bush signing whatever Congress sends over: "It'll be hard for him to resist a bill that will be put on his desk by a new Democratic majority."