Agendas, deals, alliances: Immigration bill version of 'Survivor'

Published: 2004-05-21

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- There's a new immigration law on the horizon. But it's going to take a legislative lobbying process that resembles a season -- or maybe two or three -- of "Survivor" before it's clear what it looks like. If the system for crafting a major piece of legislation was written into a television script called "Survivor: Immigration Reform," the participants would just now be arriving at the island, "Washingtonia." They'd come with backgrounds in business, local and state government, organized labor, religion, civil rights, law, the hospitality industry, agriculture and national security. Each participant would have ideas for what must be accomplished to bring the greatest benefit to the interests he or she represents. Each would also have a general idea of what he or she would be willing to sacrifice in forming alliances that will be necessary to ensure at least some pet goals survive to be part of the final version of legislation. The stakes are high. "This generation has one more chance to get it right," said Frank Sharry, director of the National Immigration Forum, at a May 18 conference on migration issues sponsored by the Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc., the Migration Policy Institute and Georgetown University. Major immigration bills of 1986, 1990 and 1996 successfully fixed only some of the problems plaguing the system, while aggravating others, he and other speakers said.

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