Sen. Jon Kyl

Related articles:

Arizona response to Senate immigration-law vote: jeers to cheers Political Notebook by Daniel Scarpinato : Kyl can't win with AZ conservativesErnesto Portillo Jr.: Immigration answers are all in the eyes of the beholders Border security push fails in Senate Giuliani: Focus immigration efforts on border enforcement Vital employer sanctions get short shrift in border debate Congress must do much more to fix immigration

Other articles by Daniel Scarpinato:

AZ budget game goes into overtime Redo budget, Brewer tells lawmakers Senate sends bill for Pima baseball-tax vote to Brewer Legislators OK change to Tucson elections Gov. Brewer follows through on veto threat, orders lawmakers to return GOP legislative leaders try to save budget deal Arizona lawmakers' budget deal stalls Political notebook : Sanford letter had unfortunate timing Tax proposals stall action until Monday Two Minutes with a Lawmaker : Republican senator discusses liberty, gov't, air conditioning

Administrative & Professional
Jorgensen Brooks Group
Counselor Trades/Construction
RANCHO RESORT
MAINTANANCE POSITION Mechanical
Komatsu Equipment Co
Resident Field Mechanic Sales and Marketing
Everready Glass
Sales Reps Administrative & Professional
Tucson Urban League
CEO/President Finance and Accounting
Charles E. Gillman Company
Accounting Specialist

After 24 hours of partisan bickering and procedural floor tactics, the U.S. Senate agreed Thursday to spend $3 billion on border enforcement efforts backed by Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl.

Included in that total is $60 million to improve a federal database of who can work here legally, specifically to help states like Arizona crack down on illegal entrants.

Kyl, who got the database money inserted into the overall border enforcement plan, said funding for the database — known as the Basic Pilot Program — is particularly crucial for Arizona.

A new Arizona law requires employers to verify the legal status of new employees through that Basic Pilot Program. The law, which takes effect Jan. 1, allows judges to suspend the state business licenses of any companies that are found to have knowingly hired illegal entrants.

Kyl said the database is capable of handling the number of additional inquiries from the more than 130,000 Arizona employers but accuracy is still a question.

Kyl's support for the $3 billion — originally part of an enforcement-first package he and other Republicans introduced Wednesday — comes one month after the comprehensive immigration reform bill he championed died in the face of public opposition.

On Thursday, Democrats and Republicans agreed to pass the funding as an add-on to the Homeland Security Department budget, but they subtracted many of the policy provisions — essentially the GOP's favorite parts of last month's failed compromise. Also, President Bush has said he plans to veto the underlying bill because it spends more than he requested.

Still, even with language stripped, Kyl praised the funding allowance, saying it would pay for 23,000 more Border Patrol agents, 45,000 detention beds, 105 ground-based radar and camera towers and 700 miles of fencing.

He also said that though this latest move only directs money to enforcement efforts, it is in keeping with his long-held views on border security.

"Taking this action will make it easier to get a bigger bill passed later because it will demonstrate the government's seriousness about actually following through on enforcing the law," he said in an interview.

With the gutting of the amendment, Republicans may come back to add language calling for money to be spent on new programs.

If the $3 billion survives conference committees, further floor votes and a veto, it will fund already authorized programs, not new ones opposed by Democrats, like mandatory sentences for illegal immigrants and allowing law enforcement to question people about their legal status.

The amendment's original language would have also banned cities from granting sanctuary to illegal immigrants.

Last month's failed compromise would have spent $4.4 billion on enforcement, with some of the money coming from fines paid by illegal immigrants seeking legal status.

This endeavor — which finally passed Thursday with an overwhelming 89-1 vote — was the latest in a heated fight over immigration policy that has been stalled by partisanship and even created internal divisions in both parties.

Kyl stressed that the elements of this latest action were included in the much-publicized compromise introduced in May.

"Most of the things that are funded here — almost all of them — were either included in our immigration reform bill or would have been added" as amendments, he said.

"This is a victory for us," Kyl said. "It takes the enforcement from our bill, and even though we couldn't get the bill passed, we get the enforcement provisions."

In that respect, the funding bill left out the pieces that alienated conservatives — in particular, a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants in the country.

Kyl was the leading Republican spokesman for that bill, which made him the target of conservative critics, with some even urging that he be recalled or resign.

On Wednesday, Kyl said though he favored a comprehensive approach, this move didn't contradict his support for the failed measure.

"My approach always was do the enforcement — as much of the enforcement, as soon as you can," he said. "Now, I needed to make some concessions to people on the other side, like Sen. (Edward) Kennedy, who wanted other things, like the illegal immigrants to be regularized, and so on. That was not my idea, obviously. That was his."

The enforcement-only legislation is Kyl's response to criticism from people who questioned why he was willing to consider a plan that included guest-worker programs and a path to legalization, said Al Garza, executive director of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.

"He received the message loud and clear from local residents in Arizona and nationwide that we would not entertain nor condone anything that had to do with amnesty," said Garza, who supports the legislation.

Rev. Robin Hoover, the founder of Tucson-based Humane Borders, which places water tanks throughout the desert, agreed Kyl was responding to political pressure — but provided a different assessment.

"He's trying to mend fences with the political right by building fences between us and Mexico," Hoover said.