WASHINGTON -- Two weeks of finger-pointing ended in just under an hour of backslapping Tuesday as Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and President Bush found common ground on immigration overhaul.
In a meeting at the White House with Reid and other lawmakers, Bush spoke favorably of a Senate measure that would overhaul immigration laws and strengthen border security.
Advertisement
Though Bush stopped short of endorsing the bill, his words were the clearest sign yet that Bush, a supporter of a guest worker program, would be willing to sign off on allowing at least some of the nation's 11 million illegal immigrants to earn citizenship.
The gathering was heralded as a major step toward breaking the stalemate over immigration changes.
It also signaled a truce between Reid and Bush, who had each blamed the other for the collapse of the bill earlier this month.
Reid faulted the president for sitting on the sidelines as Congress debated different approaches for dealing with illegal immigrants.
Bush, meanwhile, accused Reid of scuttling a vote on the bill for political purposes.
Despite the bill's bipartisan support, Reid and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., have been unable to reach agreement on procedures for considering the bill.
Both men joined Bush in striking a happier tone Tuesday.
"I want to thank both Republicans and Democrats for taking on this really hard, hard assignment," Bush said. "I assured the members that I look forward to working with them as they try to get a bill out of the Senate by Memorial Day."
"I'm not in the habit of patting the president on the back," Reid said. But he added, "I have to pat the president on the back. This was really a good, good meeting."
Frist said there was "general recognition" at the meeting of the need for passing immigration changes that went beyond shoring up the borders.
"We will pass a bill that will be comprehensive," Frist said.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, added, "I think we had a definitive statement that he wants a comprehensive bill that's beyond border enforcement and interior enforcement."
Lawmakers said that the support of the Bush administration returns the immigration debate to Congress, where both Frist and Reid pledged to find a way to bring the bill to a vote.
But getting the bill to the Senate floor could be stymied by the opposition of conservatives, including Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev, who equate citizenship for illegal immigrants as amnesty for lawbreakers.
Ensign favors strengthening the borders and offering work visas, but not citizenship, to immigrant workers.
The compromise bill was intended to appease conservatives by dividing illegal immigrants into three categories.
Those in the country five years or longer could start a path to citizenship if they learned English and paid back taxes and fines.
Those in the country two to four years would be required to check in at a border crossing before applying for legal status.
The others would be subject to deportation.
The bill would strengthen enforcement and border security by adding 12,000 border patrol agents over the next five years and boosting fines on employers of illegal immigrants.
A vote on the bill was scuttled when Frist and Reid could not agree on how many amendments should be offered to the bill.
Frist opposed Reid's demand that Judiciary Committee members be appointed to a panel to hammer out differences between the Senate bill and a get-tough approach approved in the House.
Reid feared that the legislation would be gutted either through amendments or in talks with House lawmakers.
The House bill, approved in December, focuses on strengthening the border and making illegal immigrants felons.
The worries of Reid and others took on added weight with comments Tuesday by House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.
"This idea that was being kicked around the Senate about providing some sort of amnesty for those who have been here five years or more, I just think it was a very big mistake," he said. "You are just inviting more people to come. Until you strengthen the borders and begin to enforce the laws, we're not making any progress."
But one GOP conservative, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, said in a report to be released today that he supports granting visas to illegal immigrants working in the United States and in some cases offering them a path to citizenship.
Gingrich said that with improving border controls and stiffening punishments on those who employ people illegally, "we must have a humanitarian period of transition as we replace an illegal pattern of immigration with a legal one."
But unlike the Senate compromise, Gingrich's plan would make all workers return to their home countries before applying for work visas.
"Anything less than requiring people who are working here illegally to return home to apply for a worker visa is amnesty," he said.
Senators came away from Tuesday's meeting convinced that Bush favored their approach.
"The president is talking about a guest worker program, and he's talking about a way to take the undocumented immigrants who are here in the United States today to get in line," Specter said.
That line could be shortened, with Bush leaving open the possibility of increasing the number of green cards available to immigrants, Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., said.
Bush told legislators that "if the line's too long and it takes too many years, you can shorten the line by issuing more green cards," Martinez said.
A vote on immigration changes will have to wait until the Senate finishes work on a must-pass spending bill for hurricane relief and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Senators are likely to add about $2 billion in new border security money that lawmakers said could help appease conservatives.
