United States:Senator Edward Kennedy yesterday defended an immigration reform plan he agreed this week with Republican leaders but conservatives condemned the deal as an amnesty for lawbreakers, while some immigrants' rights activists complained that it was too restrictive, writes Denis Stauntonin Washington.
The Bill, which would allow most of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the US to remain in the country legally, must win 60 votes in the Senate and a majority in the House of Representatives to become law. As they studied the details of the 380-page legislation yesterday, however, some of Mr Kennedy's Democratic colleagues said he had made too many concessions with Republicans.
"I could not sign on to the agreement announced today . . . I have serious concerns about the workability and fairness of the agreement," said New Jersey's Robert Menendez.
Senate majority leader Harry Reid, who has expressed "serious concerns" about the Bill, said he was not sure it would survive a senate debate next week.
"I don't know if the immigration legislation is going to bear fruit and we're going to be able to pass it," he said.
Under the deal, which was negotiated over the past few weeks between Democrats, Republicans and the White House, undocumented immigrants who entered the US before January 1st this year would be offered a temporary-residency permit while they await a new "Z Visa" that would allow them to live and work lawfully.
The head of an illegal-immigrant household would have eight years to return to his or her home country to apply for permanent legal residence for members of the household, but each Z Visa itself would be renewable indefinitely, as long as the holder passes a criminal background check, remains fully employed and pays a $5,000 fine, plus a paperwork-processing fee.
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has spoken out on behalf of immigrants, said the church was unhappy with plans to weight skills and education over family connections in a points system for future immigrants. And unions oppose the terms of a new guest worker scheme in which low-skilled immigrants would have to leave the country after temporary stints and would have limited opportunities to stay and get on a path to citizenship.
"Without a real path to legalization, the program will exclude millions of workers and thus ensure that America will have two classes of workers, only one of which can exercise workplace rights," said AFL-CIO president John Sweeney.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she will not introduce immigration legislation unless President George Bush can guarantee that at least 70 Republicans will support it but conservatives remained unimpressed yesterday. "What part of illegal does the Senate not understand? Any plan that rewards illegal behaviour is amnesty," said California congressman Brian Bilbray, chairman of the Immigration Reform Caucus.