Border Security Advocate Predicts Final Immigration Bill Will Take Time
by Chad Groening
June 20, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The head of a grassroots citizens group says he believes it could take most of the summer for the U.S. Senate-House Conference Committee to come up with a final version of the immigration reform bill. And when that final bill is hammered out, he expects it will closely resemble what the House passed last year. Colin Hanna is with the group WeNeedaFence.com, which works to promote border security, immigration reform, and enforcement of U.S. immigration laws. He says he believes the House and Senate immigration bills are just too far apart for anyone to expect a quick resolution, and he anticipates a long debate over finalizing the legislation.
"It'll probably take most of the summer, and there will be a whole lot of so-called 'to-ing and fro-ing' during that," Hanna observes. Meanwhile, he says, "Each of the houses will be going back to their respective constituents and talking about various options that are being offered to narrow the gap between those two bills."
But with the mid-term elections looming in the fall and the vast majority of Americans clamoring for better enforcement of existing immigration laws, the citizens' advocate believes the final immigration reform bill will be one that stresses enforcement over amnesty. And what it will not contain, Hanna contends, are "ridiculous" Senate provisions such as requiring the U.S. to consult with Mexico before building a fence on the American side of the border.
Hanna believes GOP senators will support a final bill similar to the House version, even though they voted previously for Senate legislation that pushed a guest worker amnesty plan and was light on enforcement.
"Given the fact that there are Republican majorities in both houses," the WeNeedaFence.com spokesman notes, "isn't it more likely that the Republican majorities from the Senate are looking for ways that they can come up with a bill that they can support?" That, according to his reckoning, is the more reasonable outcome.
"I think you're going to have a Conference Committee report that is closer to the House bill and that winds up getting majority Republican support," Hannah says. He is optimistic that the finalized version of the legislation will provide many of the border security provisions for which his group and other reform advocates have been calling.
Chad Groening, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
