WASHINGTON — A White House proposal for overhauling immigration laws would abandon the long-standing practice of admitting immigrants seeking to reunite with their families, instead giving preference to applicants based on the nation's employment needs.
The wide-ranging proposals to stem illegal immigration also include enforcement requirements that must be met before other changes can go forward. Those include posting 18,300 Border Patrol agents on the frontier with Mexico -- about a 53% increase -- and erecting more than four times the current amount of border fencing.
The GOP plan also states that anyone seeking jobs in the U.S., including citizens, probably will have to present secure identification in the future. And it outlines a special visa system for those already in the country without proper documents.
Republican lawmakers presented the ideas -- the initial results of a weeks-long collaborative effort with the White House -- to Democrats late Wednesday. The proposals are part of an effort to put a GOP stamp on legislation and win Republican support to pass a bipartisan bill in the Senate.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who was heavily involved in the GOP planning, called the presentation "a temperature taking." He added: "It's still very early, there will certainly be controversy."
The distance between the Republican and Democratic positions suggests rocky negotiations ahead. The two sides met Thursday night for talks that will continue through the congressional break next week.
On Thursday, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), the lead Democrat on immigration, said that the GOP plan included issues they could agree on, such as enforcement, but that important issues remained unsettled.
Kennedy and other Democrats argue that giving illegal immigrants a path to earn citizenship is essential and say future guest workers should be able to gain legal status as well. Republicans strenuously object.
Referring to those positions and his support for admission policies driven by the goal of family reunification, Kennedy emphasized that immigration policy involved special moral obligations to treat people well.
"This is unique," said Kennedy, chairman of the Senate immigration subcommittee. "You don't compromise on the morality of these issues, and we're not going to."
Immigrant advocacy groups condemned the GOP plan. "What we've seen is neither passable or workable," said Angela Kelley, deputy director of the National Immigration Forum. "The direction they're going in is a serious step back."
