IRVINE, Calif. – Under pressure from Republicans to play a bigger role in the immigration debate, President Bush will begin meeting key lawmakers today to help forge a bipartisan agreement by Memorial Day to offer some undocumented workers a path to citizenship.
But White House aides emphasized that Bush has no intention for now of staking clear legislative positions on the immigration bill.
Speaking to the Orange County Business Council on Monday, Bush rebuked those who believe the answer is sending illegal immigrants back home.
“Massive deportation of the people here is not unrealistic – it’s just not going to work,” Bush said, while anti-immigration protesters chanted outside the hotel. “You can hear people out there hollering it’s going to work. It’s not going to work.”
As Bush’s comments suggested, the issue has left Republicans deeply divided between conservatives who favor a bill that only clamps down on illegal immigration, and others who believe any immigration legislation must maintain a supply of low-cost labor for an economy dependent on it.
“One thing we cannot lose sight of is that we’re talking about human beings, decent human beings that need to be treated with respect,” Bush said.
A compromise forged in the Senate this month is locked in a procedural stalemate, even though it appears a clear bipartisan majority supports it.
But beyond general calls for a comprehensive approach to the immigration issue, Bush has refused to say exactly what he wants in a bill. In his speech Monday, he again stopped short of endorsing a particular bill. Instead, he spoke favorably of components of the middle-of-the-road approach that a bipartisan group of senators are pursuing.
The president called the Senate group’s idea of allowing illegal immigrants an easier path to citizenship the longer they have been here an “interesting approach” that Congress must debate. Work visas should be temporary, he said, but “the definition of temporary will be decided in halls of Congress.”
A senior aide said Bush – after private discussions with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. – is trying to push Republicans for a compromise before Memorial Day that does not alienate either his party’s conservative base or the fast-growing Hispanic community.
Today’s meeting will be heavy on senators favoring the Senate compromise, including Frist; Arlen Specter, R-Pa.; John McCain, R-Ariz.; Mel Martinez, R-Fla.; Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.; Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.; Robert Menendez, D-N.J.; and Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn.
Of those invited, only Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has not endorsed the plan. In contrast, its most vociferous opponents, including Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, will not be there.
But Bush is resisting pressure from members to take the lead hands-on role in cementing a congressional compromise, aides said. The White House first wants to see if the Senate can strike a bipartisan agreement on its own. Bush does not want to be seen as interjecting himself prematurely while the legislative debate remains fluid, aides said.
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