Immigration issues are resurfacing in Congress

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Aug 3, 2007 | by Julia Preston New York Times News Service

WASHINGTON -- When a broad immigration bill failed in the Senate in June after a vitriolic national debate, many legislators said the issue was dead, perhaps until President Bush left office. But already some of the less contentious pieces of the bill are returning to life.

Last week, the Senate approved $3 billion for border security as part of a Homeland Security spending bill. Democrats and Republicans have also begun laying ground for a bill that would create a temporary immigrant worker program for agriculture.

Another bill, also supported by senators from both parties, would give a path to U.S. citizenship for high school graduates who are illegal immigrants but who complete two years of college or military service. Sen. Richard J. Durbin, an Illinois Democrat who is a sponsor of the bill, attached it as an amendment to the military authorization legislation that the Senate last month put off until September. He said he would seek to move it again then.

The bill attracted renewed interest this week because of Juan Sebastian Gomez, a student who just graduated with honors from Killian Senior High School in Miami. On July 25, immigration agents in Florida detained Gomez, 18, his brother and his parents, all illegal immigrants from Colombia, and prepared to deport them.

Immigration officials delayed the deportation on Wednesday after a determined band of Gomez's high school friends roused support in south Florida and then flew to Washington to pound on doors. They pointed to Gomez's academic record -- a near-perfect 3.96 grade- point average -- and top scores on 11 Advanced Placement examinations. They argued he should not be punished for his illegal status because his parents brought him to the United States when he was 2 years old.

The failed Senate immigration bill, which included a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, was defeated by opponents who said it would reward knowing lawbreakers and the employers who hired them.

But many legislators, including some who opposed the broader bill, see the student measure differently because it would benefit immigrant teenagers who are illegal only because of decisions their parents made.

"It's unfair to make these young people pay for the sins of their parents," Durbin said.

According to the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research organization in Washington, nearly a million immigrant students across the country could gain legal status under the bill, whose supporters call it the Dream Act.

In Phoenix, seven students are staging a weeklong fast in support of the bill. While its prospects seem favorable in the Senate, the bill faces tougher opposition in the House.

"We call it the nightmare act," said Rep. Brian P. Bilbray, R- Calif., who is the chairman of the Immigration Reform Caucus in the House. "We're giving status to immigrants based on the fact they are here illegally. It really sends a mixed signal to both legal and illegal immigrants."

Support has also re-emerged for the agricultural bill, known as AgJobs, as farm labor shortages have hampered harvests this summer from Michigan to North Carolina and California. The bill's support includes growers, the United Farm Workers, conservative Republicans like Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California.

The bill would expand and streamline the existing agricultural guest-worker program and offer legal status to illegal immigrants who are experienced farmworkers. At least 70 percent of the workers in agriculture are illegal immigrants, according to the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform, a national trade group.

Supporters of the bill say they are looking for ways to bring it to a vote before the end of the year. One such effort was unsuccessful last week.During the Homeland Security funding debate, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., sought a vote on an amendment that would have combined the agricultural bill with the illegal immigrant student measure. For procedural reasons it did not go forward.

Gomez's case has provided a vivid illustration for Washington of the issues behind the illegal immigrant student measure.

An affable teenager who attracted friends at Killian High School by tutoring classmates in subjects as diverse as European history and biochemistry, Gomez seemed likely to be an exceptional college candidate. A volunteer at a neighborhood homeless shelter, he often did his schoolwork on the home computers of his friends because his parents lacked money to buy him one.

Gomez's parents, Liliana and Jose Gomez, brought him and his brother, Alejandro, who is a year older than Juan, to the United States from Colombia on tourist visas in 1990. The parents stayed and started a small catering business in Miami as the boys went through public school.

Barbara Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Gomez's parents applied for legal status but were denied by the immigration courts in 2002 and have been facing deportation orders since then.