US President George W. Bush promised yesterday to permanently bar future illegal immigrants from the US as he renewed his push for immigration reform, a centerpiece of his domestic agenda.
A revised reform package was reintroduced in the Senate this past week after its predecessor failed on June 7 to garner enough votes to cut off debate and move for final passage.
The collapse of the first proposal has prompted a personal intervention by the president, who went to Capitol Hill to plead for giving the bill a second chance.
But while he has succeeded in putting the proposal back on the Senate agenda, the legislation is facing strong opposition from both Republicans and Democrats, who argue that granting legal status to an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants will only encourage more people to sneak across the poorly guarded border.
In his weekly radio address, Bush sought to address these concerns, revealing for the first time that under the revised proposal, people crossing the US border illegally will not only be deported, but never allowed to enter the US again.
"Under this bill, those caught crossing illegally will be permanently barred from returning to the US on a work or tourist visa," the president stated.
He went on to assure Americans the new bill puts border enforcement first.
The measure contains US$4.4 billion to help the US Border Patrol hire more agents, build additional fencing, purchase infrared cameras and other technologies that help intercept illegal aliens.
"Only after these enforcement tools are in place will certain other parts of the bill go into effect," Bush said.
These "other parts" include a guest worker program that current illegal immigrants in the US would be able to join by applying for a renewable "Z" visa and paying fines.
Program participants will be allowed to eventually seek permanent residency and citizenship, although only after returning to their countries of origin.
Bush said that only those passing a background check, holding jobs, maintaining a clean criminal record and capable of mastering English will qualify for a "Z" visa.
But he insisted that lawmakers must take action now, before the situation at the southern border gets out of control.
"We have an obligation to solve problems that have been piling up for decades," said the president. "The status quo is unacceptable."
The revamped grand bargain, however, is generating as much criticism as its defunct one.
The American Immigration Lawyers Association, which theoretically stands to benefit from legalization of 12 million people, called the bill "unworkable in its current form" and promised to "vigorously" lobby against it.
The group's primary concern is the bill's new emphasis on education and professional skills rather than family ties as a basis for granting immigrants residency status.
Conservative Republicans insist that many of the arguments currently used by Bush were already used by president Ronald Reagan in 1986, when he pushed his own immigration reform.
Reagan argued, critics recall, that his proposal would solve the problem by humanely addressing the fate of some 2.7 million illegal immigrants believed to be living in the country at the time. Instead, the number of undocumented aliens has more than quadrupled.
Edwin Meese, who served as attorney general in the Reagan administration, wrote in a recent article that if Reagan were alive today, "he would not repeat the mistakes of the past."
Debate on the new immigration measure is scheduled to begin next week.
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