House Passes Border Security Bills

A border patrol agent patrols the international border between the U.S. and Mexico (Mexico to the left of frame) Thursday, April 27, 2006 in Douglas, Ariz. While the Senate considers a 700-mile fence along the Mexican border, the House is going underground, working on legislation to crack down on those who would smuggle illegal immigrants and drugs through cross-border tunnels. The tunnel bill was one of three border security measures the House was taking up Thursday Sept. 21, 2006 as part of the pre-election effort by congressional Republicans to show they are serious about stopping the flow of illegal immigrants across the nation's porous borders. (AP Photo/Matt York) (Matt York - AP)

WASHINGTON -- Republicans took a new crack at old border-security legislation Thursday as the House approved pre-election bills on deporting gang members, imprisoning tunnelers and empowering local police to arrest illegal immigrants.

With no prospects this year for passing broader immigration changes favored by the Senate, House GOP leaders said taking action to seal the border was a matter of urgency.

"We're running out of time in this Congress," said Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. "The American people say border security first."

But Sensenbrenner's Republican counterpart in the Senate, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, said, "I don't see how we can deal with the immigration issue on a piecemeal basis." There would be no motivation for the House to negotiate on the issue "if we take care of all of their priorities and none of the Senate's," he said.

The House passed legislation last December that concentrated on border security and enforcement of laws banning employment of undocumented workers. The Senate in May passed a broader bill, generally endorsed by President Bush, that included provisions for a guest worker program and ways for the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants to work toward legal status and eventual citizenship.

There's been no progress in efforts to reconcile the two bills.

The three border security bills the House took up Thursday were in large part already included in the bill passed last December.

House leaders said one plan was to try to attach the bills to Homeland Security spending legislation that Congress must clear before the end of the session, an approach that Specter, also a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, appeared to dismiss.

The Senate, meanwhile, was debating legislation passed by the House last week that would approve construction of a 700-mile fence stretching across one-third of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Democrats said Thursday's votes were an attempt to cover up the failure to pass more comprehensive immigration changes.

"It's political gamesmanship that forecasts an election" less than two months away, said Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.

Congressional Democratic leaders, seeking to capitalize on Hispanic opposition to the get-tough policy on illegal immigrants, on Thursday unveiled plans to enact immigration changes and improve education and health care for Hispanic families. "For too long this do-nothing Republican Congress has ignored, and in some cases worsened, the critical challenges facing Latinos," said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid.