WASHINGTON — The House overwhelmingly approved a far-reaching crackdown on illegal immigration Thursday night but struck from the bill a series of new restrictions on legal immigrants, including the number and type who would be allowed in the country.
The bill, passed by a 333-87 vote, would further restrict public benefits for illegal immigrants, increase penalties for smugglers and document counterfeiters and boost border enforcement by adding 5,000 more agents and 14 miles of triple fencing near San Diego.
The most contentious aspects of the legislation would allow states the option of denying free public schooling to students in this country illegally, would increase cooperation between local law enforcement officials and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and would permanently ban those who violate immigration laws from ever legally entering the country.
Although most legal-immigration restrictions were removed, the bill still would cut public benefits for legal immigrants and make their sponsors financially responsible for their well-being.
The bill originally would have cut legal immigration by 30% from the 800,000 currently allowed, and would have disallowed the adult children and siblings of U.S. citizens from receiving family visas.
"Americans got the whole loaf on illegal-immigration reform and half the loaf on legal-immigration reform," said Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), putting the best face on the breakup of the bill that he sponsored. "Three-fourths of a loaf tastes pretty good."
The bill pleases neither immigrant-rights groups nor strong foes of illegal immigrants. The hard-line Federation for American Immigration Reform announced its opposition to the bill Thursday after lawmakers stripped legal-immigration reform and weakened worker-verification provisions.
"Despite a variety of high-minded sounding attempts to reform immigration policy, Congress--with the full support of a do-nothing administration--is on its way to passing another bill that may only make things worse," said Dan Stein, executive director of the federation.
The move to excise legal-immigration reform from the bill was a blow to those who argued that foreign workers were reducing wages and taking jobs from U.S. citizens. The reform was also aimed at reducing the huge backlog of immigrants seeking to join family members in this country by eliminating adult children and siblings from the eligibility list.
