-Caveat Lector- [THIS ARTICLE BELOW PROVOKED A HUGE DEBATE ON FREE REPUBLIC.COM] Bush Aides Weigh Legalizing Status of Mexicans in U.S. News/Current Events Breaking News News Source: The New York Times Published: July 15, 2001 Author: ERIC SCHMITT Posted on 07/14/2001 12:16:25 PDT by sarcasm WASHINGTON, July 14 — President Bush's top immigration advisers are weighing plans to allow the more than three million Mexicans living illegally in the United States to earn permanent legal residency, officials involved in the deliberations said today. The proposal is the most politically charged part of a draft plan on border safety and immigration that a panel led by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Attorney General John Ashcroft is expected to submit to the White House in the next few days. The legalization idea faces stiff opposition from anti-immigrant groups and influential Republicans in Congress. The options under consideration involve different ways in which millions of Mexicans living in this country illegally could earn lawful status over the next several years, though not immediately, administration officials said. The options would quite likely be based on the immigrants' employment records, family ties in this country and how long they have lived in the United States. Any plan to legalize the residency of unlawful immigrants would be in a broader agreement to expand guest-worker programs in the United States, the officials said. Many details of the plan, including whether to permit new guest workers to become permanent residents, are still unresolved and no final decisions have been made. Any plan would be subject to approval by Congress. But pressure is mounting on the administration to address the issue as ground-breaking negotiations on immigration that Mr. Bush and President Vicente Fox of Mexico started in February are about to accelerate. Secretary Powell and Mr. Ashcroft are to meet with their Mexican counterparts in early August. Mr. Bush and Mr. Fox want to announce a major migration initiative at their summit meeting in Washington starting Sept. 4, their aides say. The review of policies toward Mexican immigrants is one of President Bush's highest priorities, partly because as governor of Texas he gained more experience in dealing with Mexico than with any other foreign nation. Mr. Bush considers Mr. Fox, perhaps more than any other foreign leader, to be a personal friend as well as a partner. Legalizing immigrants who are, in the words of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, undocumented, has major domestic political and foreign policy implications for the Bush administration. And on a human level, such a plan would transform the lives of millions of Mexicans now toiling in the shadows, including hotel maids in New York, nannies in San Francisco, meatpackers in Nebraska and textile workers in Georgia. Legalizing the status of undocumented Mexicans is a top objective of the Roman Catholic Church and immigrant advocacy groups, especially Latino organizations, whose constituencies Mr. Bush is courting in his strategy to expand his political base and win a second term in 2004. In a ceremony for new citizens at Ellis Island this week, Mr. Bush extolled the virtues of immigrants. "America, at its best, is a welcoming society," he said. "We welcome not only immigrants themselves but the many gifts they bring and the values they live by." Mr. Bush won about one-third of the Latino vote in the election last November, but his pollsters say he needs to increase that share to at least 40 percent to prevail in 2004. Latino advocates for immigrants say a generous program for adjusting legal status would win the administration new supporters. "This administration has a tremendous opportunity to reshape migration policy," said Cecilia Muñoz, a vice president of the National Council of La Raza, a major Latino human rights organization. "If this would happen, it would electrify the Latino community." At the same time, Mr. Fox has made conferring legal status on his undocumented compatriots in the United States a top priority. Mr. Fox is very likely to raise the issue when he makes a swing through mid- America — Chicago, Detroit and Milwaukee — in the next few days to meet Mexican-Americans and seek support for new American investment in Mexico. "Mexicans who work in the United States should be considered legal," Mr. Fox told a group of Texas journalists in late June. "They shouldn't have to hide in the shadows." Complicating the political equation for Mr. Bush is fierce opposition from groups that favor tighter limits on immigration and influential Congressional Republicans who say that granting legal residency to illegal immigrants is tantamount to rewarding lawbreakers. Senator Phil Gramm, Republican of Texas, supports a new guest-worker program but has vowed that any program legalizing undocumented workers would have to pass "over my cold, dead political body." A coalition that opposes increased immigration, led by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, ran more than $500,000 in radio and print advertisements in 10 states in April and May condemning any new agreement with Mexico that would expand immigration. Mr. Bush opposes a blanket amnesty comparable to the 1986 law that granted legal residency to several million immigrants who could show that they had been working in the United States for at least 90 days. Within the State, Justice and Labor Departments, aides say there are varying degrees of support for allowing immigrants to adjust their legal status over time. Secretary Powell and Mr. Ashcroft have so far avoided taking any public position on the idea, but Mexican and Congressional officials who have been briefed on the internal American discussions, say they are heartened by senior officials' receptiveness to a variety of options. "There is a realization that this is one of the most important, if not the most important issue for the Mexicans," said an administration official on the working group, "but it's also one of the most difficult, if not the most difficult issue for the U.S. Politically, it is extremely tough." Despite the opposition, such a plan nearly succeeded in Congress last year as part of an expanded agricultural guest-worker program. A bipartisan proposal, backed by farm worker unions and several state grower associations, would have increased the number of seasonal farm workers to as many as 250,000 a year, from about 40,000 now, and granted many foreign workers legal residency. Senator Larry E. Craig, an Idaho Republican who supported that failed proposal, resurrected the plan as legislation this week, and included a provision that would allow farm workers to adjust their status over six years. But Democrats, labor leaders and Latino rights advocates criticized the bill because it would lower the wages and raise the eligibility requirements for legal status that were contained in last year's proposal. Supporters of Mr. Craig's bill argue that the legislation could be an important start in talks on Capitol Hill that would parallel the United States-Mexico negotiations, and perhaps could give Mr. Bush political cover to advance a legalization plan. On both sides of the border, support is growing for an effective guest-worker program. American farmers and landscapers, as well as hotel and restaurant owners, want to stabilize their labor forces that are now highly dependent on illegal workers from Mexico. Mexican officials say a guest- worker program would help reduce the number of workers who arrive in the country illegally — more than 150,000 a year — and would save the lives of migrants who die trying to cross the blistering deserts and harsh mountains of the Southwest. Labor unions and immigrant advocates have long opposed temporary visa programs as creating a class of low-paid workers vulnerable to abuse. But new proposals with labor and wage protections have brought labor and growers closer together. Mexican officials, as well as American labor and religious leaders, say that any deal to increase the number of guest workers must first grant legal status to unlawful Mexicans already in the country. "You have to try to legalize people here first, before you bring more people in from abroad," said J. Kevin Appleby, director of migration and refugee policy for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. For their part, Mexico officials have stricken the politically charged word amnesty from their vocabulary and now talk about regularization, a concept that Foreign Minister Jorge G. Castañeda says could allow Mexican immigrants to obtain driver's licenses, Social Security cards and resident tuition at colleges. Mr. Castañeda seemed to up the ante in the negotiations when he told a group of Latino journalists in Phoenix last month that any comprehensive agreement on border safety and guest workers must include some adjustment of legal status for illegal workers. "It's the whole enchilada, or nothing," Mr. Castañeda said. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. 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