House shuns illegals proposal

House leaders on immigration policy said yesterday that there isn’t enough support in Congress to pass a guest-worker program for illegal aliens, despite President Bush’s renewed push for such a proposal.

“As far as the House of Representatives is concerned, I don’t necessarily see an environment that has changed dramatically enough that would allow for a guest-worker bill to gain majority support,” said Rep. John Hostettler, Indiana Republican and chairman of the immigration subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee.

“In our subcommittee, we have held hearings in the 108th Congress that indicate such a program would continue a long-term downward spiral in the wages of low-skilled and no-skill workers,” he said. “The simple fact of the matter is when we bring in individuals who are willing to work at such low wages, we do nothing but displace American citizens.”

The Washington Times reported yesterday that the Bush administration plans an aggressive push on its first-term proposal to relax rules against illegal immigration — a move unpopular with the Republican base, which sees such guest-worker programs as a veiled amnesty.

On Tuesday while meeting with officials in Mexico City, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said there is a better chance of passing legislation to address the millions of illegal aliens living and working in the United States.

And in Washington, White House political adviser Karl Rove said Mr. Bush will renew his push for the guest-worker proposal in the new Congress.

That effort is bound to infuriate conservatives, who believe that they were key to Mr. Bush’s re-election last week and say this is a strange use of a presidential mandate.

“It is highly unusual for an administration to use their political capital that was given by the base against the base,” one Republican strategist said.

Mr. Bush drew a rebuke from many House Republicans in January when he proposed creating a renewable temporary-worker program open both to illegal immigrants already in the United States and to new applicants abroad and suggested allowing more legal permanent immigrants to enter the country each year.

After hearing from constituents, Republican lawmakers meeting in Philadelphia a month later gave Mr. Rove an earful and said the program sounded like amnesty. Congressional aides yesterday said opposition in the House hasn’t changed.

“For us, it’s about our members,” said John Feehery, spokesman for House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert. “We have the same members.”

Still, he said Mr. Bush should be commended for taking a stand on the issue and the challenge is for Congress to respond somehow.

“The president has been courageous in coming up with a plan to fix a problem. Congress needs to help the president fix the problem,” he said.

Jonathan Grella, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Texas Republican, said, “We always welcome the president’s policy contributions and will continue to take a serious look at his contributions.”

The White House yesterday defended Mr. Bush’s plan, with press secretary Scott McClellan telling reporters that Mr. Bush “does not support blanket amnesty,” but will continue to push for his temporary-worker proposal.

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