Bush Weighs Legal Status Of Mexicans
Illegal Immigrants May Get Residency
By Dan Eggen and Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, July 16, 2001; Page A01
The Bush administration is considering the option of granting legal residency to as many as 3 million illegal Mexican immigrants now living in the United States, part of a joint effort between the two countries to solve chronic problems along the U.S.-Mexico border, officials said yesterday.
A joint immigration working group, headed by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft and Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge G. Castañeda and Interior Minister Santiago Creel, will submit a report to President Bush today urging action to address the illegal immigration problem but stopping short of endorsing particular proposals, a Justice Department official said yesterday.
But granting broad amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants is among the options that have been seriously discussed by the group and its staff, officials said.
"Nobody has coalesced around one particular solution, but the fact that the issues are even being discussed by both countries is remarkable," the Justice official said.
Proposing even limited amnesty could create a political explosion among conservatives in Congress and in states along the Mexican border. But many business groups and some unions would welcome the ability to tap a large new pool of legal workers.
Many conservatives on Capitol Hill, including Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.), have vowed to fight any amnesty proposals, arguing instead to allow Mexicans to stay as temporary laborers only.
Leaders of Latino rights organizations said they would accept an amnesty plan only if it also gives broader protections to guest workers. Temporary laborers should have rights to unionize, to obtain legal services and to stay with their families, said Cecilia Muñoz, a vice president for the National Council of La Raza.
"We are only prepared to go down this road if all the details are worked out," she said. "We\'re not prepared to sell some of our people down the river to be mistreated and abused for the sake of legalizing others."
Three million Mexican-born people live illegally in the United States, Mexico\'s National Population Council estimated last week. Other estimates are higher. Bush has made dealing with that population, and reaching out to reformist Mexican President Vicente Fox, a major priority, but he has rejected blanket amnesty.
A Justice official stressed yesterday that amnesty was one of a range of options considered by the task force, which also discussed expansion of the guest-worker program, as first reported by the New York Times. There are also many unanswered questions, the official said, including details about who would qualify for amnesty.
But Fox, who has urged the United States to accommodate more Mexican immigrants and laborers, is expected to comment on the amnesty idea during a Tuesday speech in Milwaukee at La Raza\'s annual convention. "We understand that he\'s going to address this head on," Muñoz said.
Any amnesty proposal would have to be passed by Congress, which declined to do so last fall. In 1986, during the Reagan administration, Congress passed an amnesty bill that qualified immigrants who had lived in the United States before 1972 for residency status. Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.) has introduced legislation to advance that date to include those who arrived between 1972 and 1996.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he would back the kind of amnesty move now under consideration.
"I believe that these people are living here, and it\'s a recognition of reality. They are working here," he said yesterday on NBC\'s "Meet the Press."
But Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) was cautious. "Just to summarily grant legal status to 3 million people, many of them that got here illegally and have violated the law while they\'re here, I\'d want to make
Illegal Immigrants May Get Residency
By Dan Eggen and Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, July 16, 2001; Page A01
The Bush administration is considering the option of granting legal residency to as many as 3 million illegal Mexican immigrants now living in the United States, part of a joint effort between the two countries to solve chronic problems along the U.S.-Mexico border, officials said yesterday.
A joint immigration working group, headed by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft and Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge G. Castañeda and Interior Minister Santiago Creel, will submit a report to President Bush today urging action to address the illegal immigration problem but stopping short of endorsing particular proposals, a Justice Department official said yesterday.
But granting broad amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants is among the options that have been seriously discussed by the group and its staff, officials said.
"Nobody has coalesced around one particular solution, but the fact that the issues are even being discussed by both countries is remarkable," the Justice official said.
Proposing even limited amnesty could create a political explosion among conservatives in Congress and in states along the Mexican border. But many business groups and some unions would welcome the ability to tap a large new pool of legal workers.
Many conservatives on Capitol Hill, including Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.), have vowed to fight any amnesty proposals, arguing instead to allow Mexicans to stay as temporary laborers only.
Leaders of Latino rights organizations said they would accept an amnesty plan only if it also gives broader protections to guest workers. Temporary laborers should have rights to unionize, to obtain legal services and to stay with their families, said Cecilia Muñoz, a vice president for the National Council of La Raza.
"We are only prepared to go down this road if all the details are worked out," she said. "We\'re not prepared to sell some of our people down the river to be mistreated and abused for the sake of legalizing others."
Three million Mexican-born people live illegally in the United States, Mexico\'s National Population Council estimated last week. Other estimates are higher. Bush has made dealing with that population, and reaching out to reformist Mexican President Vicente Fox, a major priority, but he has rejected blanket amnesty.
A Justice official stressed yesterday that amnesty was one of a range of options considered by the task force, which also discussed expansion of the guest-worker program, as first reported by the New York Times. There are also many unanswered questions, the official said, including details about who would qualify for amnesty.
But Fox, who has urged the United States to accommodate more Mexican immigrants and laborers, is expected to comment on the amnesty idea during a Tuesday speech in Milwaukee at La Raza\'s annual convention. "We understand that he\'s going to address this head on," Muñoz said.
Any amnesty proposal would have to be passed by Congress, which declined to do so last fall. In 1986, during the Reagan administration, Congress passed an amnesty bill that qualified immigrants who had lived in the United States before 1972 for residency status. Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.) has introduced legislation to advance that date to include those who arrived between 1972 and 1996.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he would back the kind of amnesty move now under consideration.
"I believe that these people are living here, and it\'s a recognition of reality. They are working here," he said yesterday on NBC\'s "Meet the Press."
But Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) was cautious. "Just to summarily grant legal status to 3 million people, many of them that got here illegally and have violated the law while they\'re here, I\'d want to make