Chamber of Commerce and SEIU Oppose Sensenbrenner Bill

Congress should approve changes in immigration law to give illegal immigrants a better path toward legal status, business, labor and religious groups said earlier this month

Representatives of a coalition of the groups said they generally favored legislation being offered by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., that would permit illegal immigrants to obtain work visas for up to six years, with the opportunity to apply for permanent residency.

"We support legislation that would provide a step-by-step process in which an undocumented worker could qualify for permanent legal status," said Thomas Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

He was joined by Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, Terence O'Sullivan, general president of the Laborers' International Union of North America, Mark Franken of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Kelley Rice-Schild of the American Health Care Association.

The House last month passed legislation to tighten border controls and force employers to confirm the legal status of their workers. But it drew criticism from many groups involved in immigration issues, who stressed that Congress won't solve immigration problems unless it deals with the estimated 11 million people in the country illegally.

The Senate is expected to turn to immigration as early as next month, considering several ideas for guest worker programs. Along with the McCain-Kennedy bill, Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., are promoting a temporary worker program under which people now in the country illegally would have to return home first to apply for a work visa.

Donohue said there aren't many issues — naming transportation and national security — where business and labor see eye-to-eye. "We have decided that this is a fundamental and essential issue for the future of our economy and our society."

An underground economy, said SEIU's Stern, "undermines standards for all workers in this country and creates division in workplaces and in our communities."

Donohue said the business community sees a temporary worker system as essential for addressing the current and future worker shortage. He denied that business sees immigrants as a source of cheap labor.

Source: A.P., June 19, 2006

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