House Votes to Toughen Laws on Immigration

Criminal penalties for smuggling immigrants would be stiffened, with new mandatory minimum sentences. Immigrant gang members would be rendered inadmissible under any circumstance. Mandatory minimum sentences would be established for immigrants who reenter illegally after deportation, and local sheriffs in the 29 counties along the Mexican border would be reimbursed for detaining illegal immigrants and turning them over to federal custody.

Under an amendment approved Thursday night, the nation would spend more than $2.2 billion to build five double-layer border fences in California and Arizona, totaling 698 miles at $3.2 million a mile. Another amendment approved last night would empower local law enforcement nationwide to enforce federal immigration law and be reimbursed for their efforts.

For House leaders, the bill presented a delicate balancing act to satisfy members clamoring for a real crackdown while not alienating Latino voters whom Bush and his handpicked Republican Party chairman, Ken Mehlman, have courted. GOP leaders refused to give Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) a vote on his proposed guest-worker program, after lawmakers strongly opposed to illegal immigration threatened to scuttle the entire bill if the Kolbe amendment was brought to the floor.

But leaders also rejected proposed amendments to eliminate automatic citizenship for babies born to illegal aliens on U.S. soil and to build a fence along the entire southern border.

All of Maryland's representatives except Wayne T. Gilchrest (R) opposed the bill. The Virginia delegation voted for it, except Democrats James P. Moran Jr. and Robert C. "Bobby" Scott, who voted against, and Republican Jo Ann S. Davis, who did not vote.

The passage of the bill was a bright spot for congressional leaders in an otherwise difficult year-end crunch that has been marked by defeat and disarray. House and Senate leaders are forcing lawmakers to stay on Capitol Hill through the weekend as they struggle to complete funding measures.

Last night, budget negotiators achieved a breakthrough when Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) agreed to drop from the budget-cutting measure a provision to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. Instead, Stevens will take his chances that he can pass the provision in the defense spending bill.

Stevens's decision may clear the way for a deal today to shave federal spending by a little more than $40 billion over five years.