Salazar: Immigration hearing a 'stunt'

M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News

Wednesday, August 9, 2006

WASHINGTON - Sen. Ken Salazar dismissed a planned Senate field hearing in Colorado this month as a political "stunt" to nix comprehensive immigration reform.

On Monday, Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Loveland, announced the Senate Budget Committee plans to hold a hearing Aug. 30 in Aurora to discuss the financial impacts on federal, state and local governments from current immigration policy and pending reform proposals.

Allard favors an enforcement-first approach to illegal immigration. He called the hearing a chance to hear how local communities are affected by the costs of illegal immigration.

But Salazar, D-Denver, expressed skepticism Tuesday.

"These hearings could be an opportunity to hear more information from the American people on immigration reform," Salazar said in a release. "But they are also a continuation of Republican stunts to derail any comprehensive immigration reform that secures our borders and national security."

The Senate and House of Representatives remain far apart on competing versions of immigration-reform legislation, and there are just a few more weeks for negotiators to hash out a compromise this year.

The more conservative House bill includes an expanded fence on the U.S.-Mexico border and tougher enforcement against illegal immigrants and employers who hire them.

The Senate addressed those issues but added a guest-worker plan that President Bush favors, as well as measures that could allow millions of people in the country illegally to pay fines and back taxes to get on a path to eventual citizenship.

Sean Conway, Allard's chief of staff, said Monday that the hearings could lead to consensus. But Salazar expressed doubts.

"The American people expected action on this issue this year, but the Republican leadership didn't deliver, and regrettably, it looks like immigration reform is dead until after the November election," Salazar said.

"Between now and then, a minority of Republicans will continue to try to use this for their own political goals. Nonetheless, after the November elections, the issue of immigration must be addressed as a national imperative."