Atlanta Journal Constitution
January 19, 2007

Isakson offers border proposal: Immigration reform gets another look
By Bob Kemper

Washington —- Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) reopened the congressional debate over immigration reform Thursday by introducing legislation he said could bridge the deep divide between the House and Senate that prevented Congress from producing any substantive reforms last year.

The House focused on sealing the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border, while the Senate, backing President Bush, pushed for a more comprehensive approach that would create a guest-worker program and a "pathway to citizenship" for millions of illegal immigrants already living in the United States.

Isakson's measure would occupy the middle ground, requiring that the border be sealed before other reforms could be implemented.

"There is no way you can reform legal immigration unless you first stop the porous borders and the flow of illegal immigrants," Isakson said.

The Marietta Republican first offered the compromise legislation last year at the height of the House-Senate immigration feud. It was defeated, but it attracted more Senate support than he had expected, prompting him to try again this year.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who co-sponsored Isakson's proposal last year, was quick to endorse it again Thursday. If Congress, now under Democratic control, is to finally enact immigration reform, Alexander said, lawmakers will have to accept what he calls "the Isakson principle" of providing the security sought by the House before implementing broader reforms.

As Isakson was introducing his legislation, Ken Mehlman, departing chairman of the Republican National Committee, was delivering a final major address to the group that included a plea to the party to work with Democrats for immigration reform that "maintains America as a nation of laws and also a welcoming nation for immigrants."

Isakson's proposal would add 14,000 new border patrol agents, 250 new port inspectors, 20,000 new detention-center beds and a biometric identification card that would be much harder to forge than current immigration papers.

Isakson said last year that he expected the security measures to cost between $4 billion and $6 billion, including $450 million for unmanned aerial vehicles that could monitor the border around the clock.

His proposal does not include a program that would help current illegal immigrants gain citizenship. It would, however, give anyone in the United States illegally a year to come forward. Those who pass criminal background checks and have jobs would be given a permit to work two more years before returning to their home countries.

Immigrant advocates pushing for a guest worker program have complained that Isakson's bill would delay such reforms indefinitely. Not so, Isakson said.

It would take about the same length of time —- two years —- to secure the border as it would to devise new immigration rules and programs, Isakson predicted.

"It does not protract reform," Isakson said. "And all of a sudden we have a new paradigm in America. Those who want to come here realize the way to come is the legal way, not the illegal way."