President Ronald Reagan and Representative Romano L. Mazzoli of Kentucky shook hands in 1986 at the signing of the immigration law.


June 12, 2007
’86 Law Looms Over Immigration Fight
By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON, June 11 — When President Bush goes to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to push for revival of a comprehensive immigration bill, he will have to wrestle with the ghost of a 1986 law that promised to solve the problem of illegal immigration.

That law prohibited the hiring of illegal immigrants, provided new resources for enforcement along the Mexican border and offered legal status, or amnesty, to several million illegal immigrants. In the current debate, which stalled last week when the latest legislative proposal failed to clear a procedural hurdle, senators of both parties cite the 1986 law as an example of what not to do.

Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, said he regretted voting for the 1986 measure.

“I thought then that taking care of three million people illegally in the country would solve the problem once and for all,” Mr. Grassley said. “I found out, however, if you reward illegality, you get more of it. Today, as everybody has generally agreed, we have 12 million people here illegally.”

The 1986 law was a product of more than five years’ work by Senator Alan K. Simpson, Republican of Wyoming, and Representative Romano L. Mazzoli, Democrat of Kentucky. Both left Congress more than a decade ago.

Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota, said: “I was here in Congress in 1986. I heard all the promises of the Simpson-Mazzoli Act. None of them were true, and three million people got amnesty. There was no border security to speak of, no employer sanctions to speak of, and there was no enforcement.”

Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, said: “The American people were sold a bill of goods. It didn’t work. We got an amnesty, and we got no enforcement. That is why people are so distrustful now.”

One of Mr. Bush’s “first principles,” as described in a White House planning document, is, “Do not repeat the 1986 failure.” He and other supporters of the current Senate bill say it puts enforcement first this time.

On Monday, Mr. Bush said he was confident that the bill would move forward and become law, despite the roadblock it hit last week and continued intense opposition from many conservatives in Congress and at the grass-roots level.

“I’ll see you at the bill signing,” the president told journalists traveling with him in Bulgaria.

In a letter to Mr. Bush on Monday, Senate Democratic leaders said they were “committed to Senate passage of an immigration bill this year.” But they said Mr. Bush must exert stronger leadership and deliver more votes for the legislation.

The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, said he would try again on the immigration bill if the president and Senate Republican leaders showed “new cooperation and a clear way forward.”

Supporters of the Senate bill acknowledge that the nation’s experience with the 1986 law has made their job harder. Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, said the current bill was “dramatically different from the 1986 act,” because it places more emphasis on enforcement and more conditions on the granting of legal status to illegal immigrants.

But many senators are skeptical. Under the Senate bill, they note, most new enforcement measures are “subject to the availability of appropriations,” meaning Congress would have to provide additional money to finance them.

Senator Robert C. Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia, said he supported amnesty in 1986 “based on the very same promises we hear today.” But that law did not work, Mr. Byrd said, and “I will not vote to make the same mistake twice.”

In signing the 1986 measure into law, President Ronald Reagan said, “Future generations of Americans will be thankful for our efforts to humanely regain control of our borders.”

The border remains porous.

Stephen J. Pitti, a professor of history at Yale, said the 1986 law “did little to slow migration to the United States,” but made crossing the border more difficult and dangerous. As a result, he said, illegal immigrants, rather than circulating back and forth between the United States and Mexico, are more likely to settle permanently in this country.

Likewise, Professor Pitti said, the employer sanctions authorized in 1986 did not noticeably deter illegal immigration from Latin America, but “created a booming market for fake identity cards.”

Reached Monday in Wyoming, Mr. Simpson said, “Without a more secure identifier, it was obvious that the 1986 bill could never work.”

The Senate bill calls for more secure identification documents, with photographs or biometric identifiers. Employers must use a new electronic system to verify that employees are eligible to work in the United States. And the fines for hiring illegal immigrants would be much higher than under the current law.

But the Senate bill, like the 1986 law, forbids the use of national identification cards.

Supporters of the 1986 measure freely used the word “amnesty” at the time. President Bush insists that the Senate bill “does not grant amnesty” because an illegal immigrant would have to pay a fine, pass background checks and hold a steady job to gain legal status.

But Mr. Bush will have difficulty persuading senators like David Vitter, Republican of Louisiana. Mr. Vitter said the legalization program and other provisions of the Senate bill “will inevitably repeat the mistake of 1986, only on a far broader, a far bigger, and far more dangerous scale.”

Carl Hulse contributed reporting.

Senators vow to revive immigration bill
By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent
1 minute ago



Senate leaders vowed Thursday night to revive stalled immigration legislation as soon as next week, capping a furious rescue attempt led by President Bush.

The decision, announced by Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record) of Nevada and his Republican counterpart, Sen. Mitch McConnell (news, bio, voting record) of Kentucky, envisions a final vote on the complex bill before lawmakers begin their Fourth of July vacation.

The legislation has generated intense controversy, particularly for provisions that could lead to eventual citizenship for many of the estimated 12 million immigrants now in the country unlawfully. The bill also calls for greater border security and a crackdown on the hiring of illegal employees.

Critics of the measure succeeded in sidetracking it last week, and given their continued opposition, the decision to bring it back for more debate does not necessarily portend passage.

Reid and McConnell announced their plans in a brief, two sentence statement that capped days of private negotiations by key senators as well as Bush's personal involvement.

"We met this evening with several of the senators involved in the immigration bill negotiations," they said. Based on that discussion, the immigration bill will return to the Senate floor after completion of an unrelated energy measure now undergoing debate.

At the White House, spokesman Scott Stanzel said, "We are encouraged by the announcement from Senate leaders that comprehensive immigration reform will be brought back up for consideration."

Two days ago, Bush made a rare visit to the Capitol for a meeting with Republican senators, where he urged them to give the bill a second chance. Earlier on Thursday, responding to a request from pivotal GOP senators, he threw his support behind a plan for $4.4 billion in immediate funding for "securing our borders and enforcing our laws at the work site."

Precise details of the rescue plan were not immediately disclosed.

In general, according to officials familiar with the discussions, Republicans and Democrats will each have 10-12 opportunities to amend the measure, with the hope that they would then combine to provide the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster by die-hard opponents.

Officials said the Bush-backed plan for accelerated funding would be among the changes to be voted on. So, too, a proposal by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas, to toughen a requirement for illegal immigrants to return to their home country before gaining legal status.

But in a gauge of the complexity of the rescue effort, officials said the Senate's decision last week to terminate a temporary worker program after five years would likely not be subject to change before a vote on final passage. Many of the bill's strongest supporters opposed the five-year provision when it came to a vote last week.

Also to be protected from immediate change is a requirement to give enforcement agencies access to information that immigrants provide on their applications for legal status.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, saying the negotiations had been conducted in private.

"We're going to show the American people that the promises in this bill will be kept," Bush said, two days after launching a personal rescue mission.

Any agreement was ultimately subject to approval by Reid, who has said repeatedly it was up to Bush and Republicans to line up the votes needed to advance the measure if it was to be brought back to the Senate for debate. Reid, who has expressed misgivings about elements of the bill, sidetracked it last week after supporters gained only 45 of the 60 votes needed.

Republicans accounted for only seven of the 45 votes, and Reid said earlier this week, "We'll move on to immigration when they have their own act together."

Bush's decision to personally announce support for the accelerated funding reflected concerns expressed by Republican senators at a closed-door meeting on Tuesday. Several told him their constituents doubted the government was capable of following through on a commitment to enforce immigration laws.

In a letter sent to Bush before the meeting, Georgia Republican Sens. Saxby Chambliss (news, bio, voting record) and Johnny Isakson (news, bio, voting record) wrote, "This lack of trust is rooted in the mistakes made in 1986, and the continued chaos surrounding our immigration laws. Understandably, the lack of credibility the federal government has on this issue gives merit to the skepticism of many about future immigration reform."

Under the legislation as drafted, money for border enforcement would be collected gradually as illegal immigrants pay the fines and fees needed to achieve legal status. The letter asked Bush to secure the border before other elements of the immigration measure go into effect, and the president agreed in his remarks to the Associated Builders and Contractors.

"One common concern is whether the government will provide the resources to meet the goals in the bill. They say, `It's fine to talk about it, are you actually going to do something?'" he said.

"To answer these concerns I support an amendment that will provide $4.4 billion in immediate additional funding for securing our borders and enforcing our laws at the work site," he said.

"By matching our benchmarks with these critical funds, we're going to show the American people that the promises in this bill will be kept."

Two Republican supporters of the legislation, Sens. Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record) of South Carolina and Jon Kyl (news, bio, voting record) of Arizona, had previously proposed advanced funding.

"The moment the presidential signing pen meets the paper these funds will be available," Graham said in a statement welcoming Bush's remarks.

But Sen. Jim DeMint (news, bio, voting record), R-S.C., who opposes the legislation, took a different view. "I appreciate the effort to fund border security, but there's simply no reason why we should be forced to tie amnesty to it."