July 3, 2006

In the current efforts in Congress to finalize the Immigration Legislation this year, the House and Senate are both scheduling hearings this month. Both the House and Senate have passed sharply different versions of Immigration reform legislation.

The House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (OH) and other House Republicans insisted late last week that there would be no compromise with Senate efforts to include triggers for a guest worker program and an as yet unfinalized process for the legislation of illegal aliens. This is often referred to as the “path to citizenship,” even though they would follow the attainment of concrete border security goals.

House legislation sponsored by Mike Pence (IN) would require border security goals to be certified by the Department of Homeland Security and undocumented workers and illegal immigrants to be returned to their countries of origin before they could seek citizenship.

The border security debate in Congress is now at a point where many majority members in the House of Representatives consider that creating and providing access to a process of legalization inclusive of penalties and fines, while remaining in the U.S., is in reality amnesty to law-breakers.