WASHINGTON
(AP) -- The Senate opened its first hearing on a comprehensive
immigration overhaul Wednesday with a call from a committee chairman for
swift action on a pathway to citizenship for the nation's 11 million
illegal immigrants. Tensions quickly emerged as shouting protesters
interrupted the hearing and Republicans called for border security
first.
"The president is right: Now is the
time," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told a
packed hearing room a day after President Barack Obama used his State of
the Union address to renew his call for immigration reform and eventual
citizenship for illegal immigrants.
The
emotions surrounding the issue were on display as protesters shouted
down the first witness, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano,
calling for an end to deportations.
The
protesters were ushered out. Napolitano declared the border more secure
than ever and rejected the argument that border security must be the
focus before comprehensive immigration reform or any pathway to
legalization can be done.
"Too often the
border security refrain simply serves as an excuse," Napolitano said.
"Our borders have in fact never been stronger."
A
top committee Republican, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., quickly
contradicted her and Leahy, saying the administration has not focused
sufficiently on enforcement, and contending that "you mean amnesty only,
you really mean we're not going to have enforcement, we've got to have
amnesty first."
The hearing came amid a
concerted focus on immigration reform from the White House to Capitol
Hill. Obama says he is determined to finally make good on his promise to
the Latino community to sign into law a comprehensive immigration bill
with border security, employer enforcement, improvements to legal
immigration and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already
here. Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of eight senators has been meeting
to develop a bill by next month that accomplishes eventual citizenship
for illegal immigrants while also containing enough border security and
enforcement measures to gain conservative support.
It
comes amid a rapidly shifting political environment with polls showing
more Americans support eventual citizenship for illegal immigrants, and
many Republican leaders increasingly supportive of action on immigration
reform in the wake of a dismal showing among Latino voters in the
November elections.
Yet, as Wednesday's
hearing made starkly clear, the success of any legislation is no sure
thing with many Republicans still deeply skeptical.
Several
Republicans on the panel rejected Napolitano's contention that the
border is secure, questioned why earlier immigration laws never yielded
the promised enforcement mechanisms, and branded as "amnesty" attempts
to legalize illegal immigrants.
"I do not believe the border is secure and I still believe we have a long, long way to go," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.
Protesters
interrupted the hearing several times, with some shouting and waving
banners against deportations, which have increased markedly under the
Obama administration. Later another group stood and turned their backs
to the dais where the senators sat, with signs on their backs reading
"human rights" and "immigrant rights." Leahy repeatedly chided the
protesters for interrupting proceedings.
In an
unusual move for Congress the hearing was also to feature testimony
from an illegal immigrant, Jose Antonio Vargas, a former journalist who
founded the group Define American, which campaigns for immigration
reform.
The former head of America Online,
Steve Case, also was on the witness list, along with Chris Crane,
president of the immigration and customs' workers union, which has
opposed Obama's immigration policies.
The
bipartisan Senate negotiators, including Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.,
Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and John McCain, R-Ariz., are operating separately
from the Senate Judiciary Committee, but the committee is expected to
vote on any legislation they produce.
A major
difference between Obama's proposals and the blueprint embraced by the
bipartisan Senate negotiators is that the senators are making a pathway
to citizenship conditional on border security being accomplished first -
something Republicans demand - while Obama's plan contains no such
linkage.
Vargas acknowledged his illegal
status in a high-profile piece in The New York Times Magazine in June
2011 but thus far has avoided deportation. He was part of a Washington
Post team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for coverage of the Virginia
Tech massacre. He wrote in his Times essay that his mother sent him
from the Philippines to live with grandparents in California in 1993
when he was 12. He wrote that he didn't find out he was in the country
illegally until he applied for a driver's permit with forged documents.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press modified.
