US: Republican leaders in the US House of Representatives and the Senate have called for the removal of a provision in the House version of the controversial immigration bill that would make it a felony for a foreign national to be in the US without a valid visa. They also sought to blame Democrats for the inclusion of the provision.
The move came in a written statement issued on Tuesday by House speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois and Senate majority leader Bill Frist of Tennessee in the wake of massive marches throughout the US on Monday which Republicans increasingly fear may affect their chances in the autumn's congressional mid-term elections.
House Republicans rushed through legislation just before Christmas that would build hundreds of miles of fence along the US-Mexico border, mandate that businesses verify the legality of all employees through a national database, fortify border patrols and declare illegal immigrants and those who help them to be felons.
After more lenient legislation failed in the Senate last week, public attention suddenly became focused on the House version.
"There was political calculation that they could make this the wedge issue of 2006 and 2008, but it's not playing out that way," said Arizona's Raul Grijalva. "This has galvanised and energized the Latino community like no other issue I have seen in two decades, and that's going to have electoral consequences."
The politics of the issue have shifted markedly since the House acted. Republican lawmakers are increasingly saying they will now consider some avenue to grant illegal immigrants access to lawful employment, the issue around which the Irish Government and supporters of Irish illegals have been campaigning in the US.
The leaders' note seeks to remind voters that although Republicans are in the majority in both houses, it was Democrats in the House who "voted to make felons out of all of those who remain in our country illegally".
"It remains our intent to produce a strong border security bill that will not make unlawful presence in the United States a felony," they insist. Republicans wanted the offence merely to be a misdemeanour.
The Hispanic community has been particularly exercised over the tougher penalty. Critics also fear several provisions, including one making it a felony to "assist" illegal immigrants to "reside in or remain" in the United States, could be used to prosecute anyone who offers humanitarian aid - including medical care - to undocumented migrants.
The bill, drafted by the Republican House Judiciary Committee chairman, James Sensenbrener of Wisconsin, would make it a felony for a foreign national to be in the US without a visa. That provision was designed to equalise the penalties for people who enter the country illegally and those who enter legally but stay past their visa's expiration date.
However, before the House approved the legislation, Mr Sensenbrenner offered an amendment that would have reduced the infraction from a felony to a less serious misdemeanour offence.
The amendment failed, with 164 votes supporting it and 257 opposed. Of those voting against it, 191 were Democrats and 65 were Republicans. In their statement, Hastert and Frist cited that vote, accusing Democrats of opposing the Sensenbrenner amendment because of a "lack of compassion".
Senator Edward Kennedy fired back that "there's no running away from the fact that the Republican House passed a bill and Senator Frist offered one that criminalises immigrants".
House Democrats acknowledged they helped block Republican efforts on the floor last December to soften the Republican-crafted section declaring illegal immigrants to be felons, but they said ultimate responsibility for the bill rests with the Republicans, who voted overwhelmingly for its passage.
"The Democrats were not going to do anything to make it easier for Republicans to pass an atrocious bill," said Jennifer Crider, a spokeswoman for House minority leader Nancy Pelosi. - (LA Times-Washington Post service)