The Houston Chronicle reports Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Thursday that immigration reform is probably off the table for this year:
"The overall guest worker-immigration legislation will come in this Congress (which ends in late 2006). It won't be this summer, I can't promise it will be in the fall," said Frist, R-Tenn. "More likely, it will be in the early part of next year, but within the next 12 months."
[. . .]
Frist said one reason for taking time with the issue was that the Senate's Republican leadership was aiming at a "comprehensive approach" on the idea of guest workers and immigration reform to attract bipartisan support. He said the leadership would "look at what the president has (proposed) and look at individual initiatives."
According to the Chronicle, the delay on immigration legislation is largely due to the upcoming Supreme Court confirmation hearings.
I know the Senate Judiciary Committee is responsible for the confirmation hearings and its immigration subcommittee is partly responsible for immigration reform. I understand that the Supreme Court confirmation hearings will be a true oxygen sucking event. I also understand that immigration reform will also be pretty much all consuming. The Senate needs to find a way to get immigration reform done sooner rather than later. The closer we get to the 2006 election the less likely it becomes that we will see any meaningful reform until after the election.
While we will never totally seal our borders, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is quite correct when he says, "we must gain full control of our borders to prevent illegal immigration and security breaches. Flagrant violation of our borders undercuts respect for the rule of law and undermines our security. It also poses a particular burden on our border communities."
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