SAN DIEGO / PHILADELPHIA — In two different hearing rooms on two distant coasts, the two chambers of Congress on Wednesday staged competing summer shows to promote their dueling visions of illegal immigration in the United States and the best way to overhaul immigration laws.
At a hearing organized by House Republicans who back tougher enforcement, witnesses in San Diego painted a grim picture of the U.S.-Mexico border as a war zone that fuels crime and is "ripe" for becoming a "terrorist pipeline."
"National security is synonymous with border security," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), who traded barbs with his Democratic counterparts at the often-testy hearing.
About 2,700 miles away in Philadelphia, senators who back a multi-faceted approach to revising immigration policy heard from witnesses who emphasized the essential role illegal workers now play in the nation's economy.
"Our city's economy ... would collapse if they were deported," said New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
The two hearings marked the start of a summer-long contest between the House and the Senate to control the terms of the immigration debate. A House bill passed late last year concentrates on enforcement, while Senate legislation approved in May combines intensified border security with a guest worker program and path to legalization for most of the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.
As lawmakers held court on opposite coasts, President Bush hosted his own field hearing at a Dunkin' Donuts in Alexandria, Va. Celebrating the entrepreneurial energy of the store's two Iranian American owners and their Guatemalan American district manager, Bush jokingly offered reporters coffee and reiterated his support for a Senate-style overhaul. "We're not going to be able to deport people who have been here, working hard and raising their families," Bush said. "I want to work with Congress to come up with a rational way forward."
The atmosphere at the House hearing, at San Diego Border Patrol headquarters, was far less jovial. Within sight of the hills of Tijuana and the walls that separate the United States from Mexico, immigration restrictionists waved American flags, while immigrant advocates displayed hundreds of crosses representing those who died trying to cross the border.
A similar duel took place inside the hearing room.
