Congress' summer project: Reconciling House, Senate immigration bills

Published: 2006-06-09

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Here's a current events riddle: What's 796 pages long; has fans in the White House, big business, labor unions, civil rights organizations and the Catholic Church and among conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats in Congress; could dramatically improve the lives of millions of people; and may never see the light of day again? The answer: the immigration bill the Senate approved May 25 by a margin of nearly 2-to-1. It was hailed as a victory of bipartisan cooperation and loaded with provisions that could affect millions of current and future immigrants and U.S.-born children of immigrants. Although supporters of comprehensive immigration reform, such as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, disagree with some of its provisions, the bill would offer many of the estimated 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants in the country the chance to legalize their status. It also would benefit agricultural workers and college students who lack legal residency papers and speed up the immigration process for hundreds of thousands of families with backlogged applications for relatives to immigrate. S. 2611 passed the Senate after weeks of debating, amending and negotiating. It now awaits action by congressional conferees to resolve differences between the Senate bill and the House measure passed in December that focuses only on the enforcement of immigration laws.

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