In the debate over immigration, amnesty is an epithet, hurled by one side, dodged at all costs by the other. It is a politically unfeasible option.
Which is why supporters of Senate legislation say they favor an "earned path to citizenship" for an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the US. Why an advocacy group calls itself the "Essential Worker Immigration Coalition."
And why US President George W. Bush talks about a comprehensive approach to immigration -- details undisclosed -- that moves "beyond tired choices and the harsh attitudes of the past."
PHOTO: AFP
Critics who ascribe amnesty to the bill are "trying to find hot buttons to push," pollster Celinda Lake recently told reporters. "I'm surprised some people don't call it gay marriage, too."
More than election-year word play is at stake as US Congress struggles toward the first major overhaul of immigration laws in two decades.
In the Senate, at least, victory probably will belong to any group of 60 lawmakers supporting an approach they comfortably can claim is less than amnesty.
Bush's agreement with their definition, or at least his acquiescence, is essential to their success. That is especially so if a compromise is to emerge from negotiations with the House. Majority Republicans there have passed legislation calling for criminal penalties for people illegally in the US and for a fence along stretches of the US-Mexican border to keep illegal immigrants out of the US.
By contrast, legislation before the full Senate begins with steps to strengthen border protection and omits the criminal penalties. It envisions an increase in the flow of future immigrants into the US, in temporary guest worker programs.
Of greatest contention is letting illegal aliens who were in the US before Jan. 7, 2004, seek citizenship without first returning to their home country.
They would be required to pay fines, show they were current on their taxes, learn English and meet other tests, including waiting their turn behind immigrants legally in the US.
Critics say that would forgive years of lawbreaking and encourage future immigrants to come to the US illegally in the hope that they, too, would be forgiven one day.
In 1986, legislation "required illegal aliens to pay a fee, to learn English, to improve themselves by working in this country for a set time," said Senator Saxby Chambliss, a Republican..
"Everyone agrees on two points," he said. "No. 1, they agree it was amnesty. And No. 2, they agree it was a complete and total failure."
A second Southern conservative, Senator Jeff Sessions, said the measure includes four separate amnesty provisions.
"It should be called `no illegal alien left behind,'" said Sessions, whose detailed criticism has been one of the main elements of the first few days of debate.
The highest-decibel clash so far has been among Republicans, at a time when Bush issues near-daily pleas for lawmakers to conduct a dignified debate on an issue of such importance to the fast-growing Hispanic voting population.
In the House, more than a dozen conservative Republicans warned repeatedly at a news conference their party courts disaster at the polls if they embrace amnesty.
"Many of those who have stood for the Republican Party for the last decade are not only angry. They will be absent in November" when it comes time to vote Representative J.D. Hayworth said.
Democrats fear a political trap in which they will be forced to choose between measures making the borders more secure and cracking down on immigrants.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not