Senate starts immigration reform debate

The debate on comprehensive immigration reform -- along with some form of guest worker legislation -- is expected to hit the Senate floor this week.

What Senators and lobbyists watching the major immigration law overhaul bill are unsure about is exactly what form the legislation will take, especially on amnesty and guest worker issues.

"It's hard to describe what's going to come of this," said Craig Regelbrugge, senior director of government relations for the American Nursery and Landscape Association (ANLA). "What's happening is a lot of political wrangling."

While many consider the guest worker program (including H-2A and H-2B temporary visa programs) as a separate business issue that might come to a vote as part of another piece of legislation or independently (see related story), comprehensive immigration reform is making national headlines.

Last December the House of Representatives passed an immigration reform bill (H.R. 4437) that was supported by the Bush administration but denounced by advocates for immigrant workers. Under that plan, qualified workers (including immigrant workers) could stay in the country six years, but then would have to return home.

The plan currently in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee and proposed by Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and John McCain (R-AZ) would not include an amnesty. Kennedy told newspapers last week it would not give the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants currently in the country any advantage over people overseas waiting for decisions on their green card applications.

The chief alternative in front of the committee, from Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ), would give illegal immigrants up to five years to leave the country. Then they could re-apply from home to return as temporary workers or for permanent residency.

Finally, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) has indicated that he will raise the issue to the Senate at large the week of March 27 regardless of whether the Judiciary Committee comes up with a consensus on the Kennedy-McCain bill or the Cornyn-Kyl version.

"Whether [Frist] will be flexible or not, nobody can predict right now," Regelbrugge said in his weekly conference call with industry media on the status of immigration reform.

"There's a very real risk that an impact on one level will have an impact on another," said Regelbrugge, addressing the relationship between comprehensive immigration reform -- seen largely as a security and citizenship issue, and the guest worker program -- seen primarily as a business issue. "We're all in this together, but if a piece of it fails, it has a ripple effect."