Immigration Recrimination

By T. Christian Miller

April 9, 2006 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — Engaging in partisan political warfare, President Bush and the Senate Democratic leader blamed each other Saturday for the Senate’s failure to pass legislation to overhaul immigration laws.

Bush used his weekly radio address to thrust himself into the thick of the immigration battle, accusing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) of obstructing the bipartisan compromise announced Thursday. Bush called on Reid to end his “blocking tactics” on the bill, which stalled Friday.

“We should ... conduct the debate on immigration reform in a manner worthy of our nation’s best traditions,” Bush said. “To keep the promise of America, we must remain a welcoming society and also enforce the laws that make our freedom possible.”

Reid lashed back, accusing Bush of failing to provide the leadership necessary to overcome conservative Republicans’ antipathy toward the Senate compromise.

“It was President Bush and Republicans in Congress who lacked the backbone to stand up to the extreme right wing of their party,” Reid said in a statement.

The comments added to the increasingly partisan tone surrounding immigration legislation, which has emerged as an important issue for both parties going into midterm elections this year.

Immigrants’ advocates fear that both Republicans and Democrats will use the debate to score political points rather than seek a comprehensive measure this year.

Senate Democrats and Republicans appeared together at a news conference Thursday to celebrate a deal that would toughen enforcement of immigration laws but also would create a path to citizenship for most of the estimated 12 million immigrants currently in the United States illegally.

Less than 24 hours later, the bipartisan agreement fell apart when Reid demanded that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) limit amendments that other senators could offer on the Senate floor.

Reid also insisted that Frist draw on Judiciary Committee members -- who are thought to be more moderate than Senate Republicans as a whole -- to negotiate with the House on a final bill.

Frist refused, saying such conditions were an unwarranted imposition on the majority party’s prerogatives.

Without such restrictions, Democrats said, they feared that Republicans would drift from the Senate version and produce a final bill closer to the harder-line measure the House passed. The House version would authorize a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border and make it a crime to assist illegal immigrants. House Republicans have opposed citizenship for people in the U.S. illegally.

The legislative roller coaster has alarmed immigrants’ advocates, who fear that the fight might have doomed passage of a comprehensive overhaul before fall’s midterm elections.

Several activists said Saturday that Bush’s leadership in coming weeks could prove key.

The Senate is in recess for two weeks, and demonstrations are expected across the country today and Monday.

Frank Sharry, executive director of the pro-immigration National Immigration Forum, said Bush needed to apply the full weight of the White House to ensure the success of the Senate compromise.

Sharry said Bush’s endorsement of that measure could force House Republicans to give Senate Democrats the assurances necessary to move the bill forward.

“The president is the key now,” said Sharry, whose group supports the Senate compromise. “It’s up to Bush to engage as strongly as the White House can to bring this thing across the finish line.”

Tom Snyder, national political director of UNITE HERE, a labor union that includes many immigrants, said he worried that all sides were more interested in turning immigration into a political weapon than reaching a solution.

“This has been debated for so long, and we’re so close. Now everybody is pointing the finger,” Snyder said.

“Millions and millions of people are depending on this. Enough is enough.”