ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, May 3, 1996 TAG: 9605030060
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: The Washington Post
The Senate overwhelmingly passed an immigration bill Thursday that would reinforce the U.S. Border Patrol, crack down on smuggling and employing illegal aliens, and impose new restrictions on government benefits for legal immigrants.
The bill, similar to one the House passed in March, was approved 97-3 after eight days of debate marked by sharp differences among Republicans over several key issues and skirmishing between Republicans and Democrats over the minimum wage.
Although only three Democrats voted against the bill, it immediately came under fire from private groups on both sides of the debate. Advocates of lower immigration levels charged that it had been ``diluted'' to the point of meaninglessness, while immigration proponents assailed as ``mean-spirited'' its restrictions on legal immigrants' access to public benefits.
Like its House counterpart, the Senate bill emerged from the legislative process without its original provisions aimed at reducing the number of legal immigrants. The sponsor, Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., attempted to insert what he described as modest cuts in the annual visa levels for legal immigration, but he was soundly rebuffed in a move led by freshman Republican Spencer Abraham of Michigan to keep legal immigration visa numbers in a separate bill, effectively shelving the issue.
The bill would nearly double the strength of the Border Patrol, an arm of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, by adding 4,700 new agents over the next five years. It would also add 600 INS investigators to crack down on alien smuggling, illegal employment and visa overstays.
Foreigners who enter the United States legally but then overstay their visas account for as many as half the country's roughly 4 million illegal immigrants, a population estimated to be increasing by 300,000 a year, according to INS estimates.
The bill would increase detention space for illegal aliens to at least 9,000 beds by September 1997 and add 700 Labor Department investigators over the next two years to enforce labor standards in areas with large illegal immigrant populations.
In a close vote, the senators approved pilot projects aimed at developing a system to verify eligibility for employment and public assistance, and agreed to federal standards for birth certificates and state driver's licenses to reduce document fraud. Conservative Republicans had charged that the verification system would lead to creation of a ``national ID card,'' although this was expressly ruled out in the bill.
The bill would make it easier to deport ``criminal aliens'' by, among other measures, changing the definition of an ``aggravated felony,'' which triggers expedited deportation, to sentences of one year, instead of five years at present.
It would also authorize the INS to spend an additional $12 million on physical barriers along the U.S.-Mexican border south of San Diego, Calif., including triple fences and high-tech detection devices.
In some of its most controversial provisions, the bill seeks to limit immigrants' access to federal benefits and reinforce long-standing provisions prohibiting legal immigrants from becoming ``public charges.'' Legal immigrants would be subject to deportation if they received federal welfare benefits for more than 12 months during their first five years in the country.
President Clinton called the bill an endorsement of his administration's ``comprehensive immigration strategy,'' which he said already had made ``historic progress'' in cracking down at the border and in the workplace.
Clinton said the bill ``goes too far in denying legal immigrants access to vital safety net programs which would jeopardize public health and safety.''
Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., hailed the bill as a ``long overdue'' effort to balance the U.S. heritage as a nation of immigrants with tougher enforcement of American ``sovereignty'' on the nation's borders.
``We cannot remain a great country and fail to control our borders,'' Dole said. He said the bill's provisions provide ``for first time a realistic hope that our Border Patrol can cope with illegal immigration.''
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., forecast a tough fight over an amendment in the House version that allows states to deny free public education to illegal immigrant children. Such a provision, which Kennedy said he strongly opposes, was never offered in the Senate and could trigger a veto if it reaches Clinton.
LENGTH: Medium: 83 linesby CNB