WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Two key immigration bills stuck for months in Congress promise more jobs and safer lives for migrant workers while guaranteeing a continued supply of cheap foreign labor for U.S. employers. Unexpectedly, the measures now are gaining new support that could lead to passage early next year.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge surprised many observers Tuesday in Miami when he called for the United States to grant some form of legal resident status to millions of illegal immigrants.
"I think there's a growing consensus that, sooner rather than later, we need to deal with the reality that these men, women and families are here, many contributing — most contributing to their community, paying taxes, paying into Social Security," Ridge said. "We have to legalize their status."
That could be accomplished under a bill nicknamed the AgJOBS Act, which would make millions of current migrant workers eligible for legal resident status. It could also greatly increase the number of agricultural guest workers and extend protections to them to combat smuggling of foreign workers and inhumane working conditions.
Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., one of the sponsors of the AgJOBS bill, along with Florida Sen. Bob Graham, called Ridge's comments "quite a positive contribution to the momentum that's building for the bill."
Berman said with Graham and 48 other senators, including 24 Republicans, signed up as co-sponsors, "We're building up a real head of steam for passage in the Senate," perhaps as early as January.
House passage will be harder, but Berman still predicts that with "the tremendous support of growers around the country, from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the AFL-CIO, most of the major immigrant advocacy groups and endorsement from non-agriculture industries," AgJOBS will be passed by the House "in the first quarter" of 2004.
Another pending bill, the proposed Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2003, would go even further and greatly expand the foreign guest worker program beyond agriculture. It would also allow illegal immigrants who can prove they have worked for a specified time for a U.S. employer to apply for legal residency.
The White House has been silent about immigration amnesty since talks with Mexican President Vicente Fox broke down after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. After Ridge's remarks last week, White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan told reporters that President Bush still wants to "match willing workers with willing employers," suggesting Bush will support some version of the earlier proposal calling for more guest workers and legalization of at least 3 million immigrants now in the country illegally.
Ridge's spokesman, Brian Roehrkasse, said Ridge was not speaking about specific immigration legislation but supports measures that would allow the U.S. to collect identity and residency information on those illegal immigrants.
"How to keep track of people who are in the country illegally has been in the forefront of our concerns since 9/11," Roehrkasse said. "The secretary was talking about the 8-12 million people in the U.S. illegally. To us, it's about our mission to secure our borders. We need some method of keeping track of where these people are."
Fear of deportation makes voluntary registration unlikely unless limited work permits and drivers licenses are offered to those in the United States illegally.
Others who want immigration reform higher on the national agenda are more concerned with widespread human rights violations than registration for national security reasons.