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Saturday, May 26, 2007
Listening in on the sales pitch for immigration reform
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On Thursday, U.S. Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson invited Republican state lawmakers in Georgia to participate in a conference call, to allow them to ask questions on the most volatile topic of the day — the immigration reform package.
About 33 or 34 participated, we’re told. The number is uncertain, because it included at least one extra ear — belonging to illegal immigration opponent D.A. King of Marietta.
At least a pair of somebodies — King won’t say who, but says the information came from more than one person — slipped him the password that allowed him to listen in.
We’re told that Chambliss and Isakson are furious about the breach.
But a brief joint statement put out by the pair on Saturday declined to address it: “Illegal immigration is a difficult, emotional issue. We are working with all Georgians to secure the border first, prohibit a new pathway to citizenship and end illegal immigration.”
We weren’t there, and can’t speak to the specifics. But this conference call — and President Bush’s trip to coastal Georgia on Tuesday — shows you the ferocity with which this issue is being debated among Republicans.
King was kind enough to type up a few notes from the group call. Much of it sounds like what Chambliss and Isakson — the two are in tight coordination — have said before similar audiences.
Perhaps the most important news that King relates is that several of the lawmakers who participated spoke of the intense public opposition to the bill that they’ve encountered.
In response, King said, the senators said there would be further discussion of a “touchback provision” that would require illegal immigrants to leave the United States before coming back under any legal status.
In addition, says King:
— “Chambliss led off by saying that the bill needed to be explained and that because they had both voted no last year [on the previous immigration bill] the White House had initiated an effort to get them involved with the new bill.
— “[Chambliss] adamantly stated that last year’s bill was the worst piece of legislation he had ever seen since going to Washington.”
— “Chambliss said that they were part of an initial group involved that included [U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez] in many long meetings to work on ‘amnesty or whatever’ but that they were not involved in every conversation and that there were ‘no back room deals.’”
— King says Chambliss then went on to explain that the three driving points for conservatives were border security, an end to chain migration, and workplace verification of employee identities. Chambliss also mentioned that illegal immigrants would have to learn English to obtain a “Z” visa.
— Isakson, King said, “went on to outline that the bill calls for 18,000 Border Patrol Agents to be hired and on duty and 370 miles of fence and border security.”
— King quoted Isakson as saying that no federal law currently demands enforcement of U.S. borders, and that the immigration reform package would change that.
Afterwards, the anti-illegal immigration activist said he got into it with aides to the senators over that statement. The U.S. Constitution demands border security, King said.
Yes, it does, one senate aide told us. But sometimes laws are needed as mechanisms to implement what the Constitution demands.
