WASHINGTON – With a sweeping immigration bill sidetracked, Northwest senators say they will push for a measure that offers the hope of citizenship to millions of immigrants while securing U.S. borders.
A Senate bill gained only 38 votes on a key procedural test Friday, far short of the 60 needed to advance.
“I am hopeful that the Senate can continue its work toward comprehensive immigration reform,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said Friday. “Today’s immigration system has broken down for everyone involved and the country needs a fresh strategy that strengthens security at our borders and lays out an orderly process for people to earn a shot at the American dream.”
Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., said immigration legislation should address security and legality while “remembering always humanity.”
Democratic Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell of Washington state said reform should address security on both the northern and southern borders, while allowing a process for people to become legal citizens.
“Just building a fence and just putting agents on the border is not going to solve the immigration problem,” Murray said in an interview. “It has to include a provision for people who are here to have a pathway to citizenship and a guest worker provision.”
A House bill passed in December would make being in the country illegally a felony.
Murray and other senators called such steps counterproductive. Wyden said the House bill – and the stalemate in the Senate – were the result of widespread frustration over the current immigration system, which he said is clearly broken.
The Pew Hispanic Center, a research organization in Washington, D.C., estimates there are as many as 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States, though other organizations put the number at 11 million. As many as 175,000 undocumented immigrants live in Oregon, with more than 210,000 estimated in Washington.
Whatever the numbers, “the key distinction is really between people who have been here a long time” and those who arrived more recently, Wyden said. Those who have been here longer should have an easier time getting citizenship – as long as they pay taxes and obey other U.S. laws, Wyden said.
“There needs to be a path set out that requires them to meet a number of obligations,” Wyden said, adding that he rejects the notion of amnesty, a comment echoed by lawmakers from both parties.
Cantwell emphasized respect as crucial to balanced reform. She said Washington state’s location and its dependence on international trade give residents a “more international view of this issue” than many other states.
“People want border security, and they also want to retain a work force that’s there and they want a legitimate path to citizenship,” Cantwell said.
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