Wisconsin Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner accused President Bush of abandoning the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act the House passed in December:
"He basically turned his back on provisions of the House-passed bill, a lot of which we were requested to put in the bill by the White House," Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., angrily told reporters in a conference call. "That was last fall when we were drafting the bill, and now the president appears not to be interested in it at all."Sensenbrenner chairs the House Judiciary Committee and would be the House's chief negotiator on any final immigration package for Bush's signature. He said it was the White House that had requested two controversial felony provisions in the bill the House passed last winter.
"We worked very closely with White House in the fall in putting together the border security bill that the House passed," he said. "... What we heard in November and December, he seems to be going in the opposite direction in May. That is really at the crux of this irritation," he said of Bush.
Sounds like Sensenbrenner is upset with President Bush? It gets worse:
"I was very disappointed in the president's speech," Sensenbrenner said. "I think he doesn't get it."Asked if Bush mollified conservatives in the speech by calling for sending National Guard troops to states along the Mexican border, Sensenbrenner said, "He failed in that completely."
And despite Bush's insistence that he was not calling for amnesty, Sensenbrenner said, "Well it is an amnesty, because it allows people who have broken the law to stay in the country."
Sensenbrenner seems to be reacting to the President joining the Senate in trying to roll over Republican House members who passed the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act.
As the Senate works its immigration reform bill, it is hard to envision how this bill will be reconciled with the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act the House passed in December.
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