The following is collected and archived by CND-US. If you have any questions regarding the following information/message, please contact the original sender(s) listed below. Thank You. China News Digest - US Regional Services (Bo Xiong) --------------- From hong.wang@ummed.edu Fri Mar 15 11:03:34 1996 Date: Fri, 15 Mar 96 10:30:51 PST Message-Id: <9603151830.AA19242@cnd.org> Reply-To: hong.wang@ummed.edu (Hong Wang) From: hong.wang@ummed.edu (Hong Wang) To: webmaster@cnd.org Subject: Immgration Bill Status: RO Senate Separates Measures On Legal and Illegal Immigrants By JOE DAVIDSON (Wall Street Journal, Mar 15, 1996) Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal WASHINGTON -- A Senate panel split a controversial immigration bill in two, creating one measure to fight illegal immigration and another to reduce legal immigration. The move may make it less likely that Congress will pass any legislation this year to cut legal immigration. There is less support in Washington for cutting the number of legal immigrants to the U.S. than for provisions to block illegal entry, such as strengthening the Border Patrol, which have solid backing. But Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, said splitting the bill ''just makes it much more speculative whether any kind of bill can come out'' of Congress this year. After the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 12-6 to divide the bill, Sen. Feinstein, whose state long has been a magnet for immigrants, said it may be difficult to win final congressional approval for any immigration bill, because the House is proceeding with a single measure and may balk at splitting it. But Rep. Lamar Smith (R., Texas), author of the House bill, dismissed the Senate maneuver as a procedural issue. He said he expects the bills to be combined again before final passage. ''What remains is the fact that our current immigration laws are broken and must be fixed,'' he said. In a victory for business, Sen. Alan Simpson (R., Wyo.), author of the Senate legislation, has promised to strike the employment-related restrictions from the legislation. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D., Mass.), with support from Labor Secretary Robert Reich, has vowed to fight for provisions that would prevent Americans from being ousted from their jobs in favor of foreign replacements. The National Association of Manufacturers said by splitting the bill, ''lawmakers can now vote to crack down on illegal immigrants without restricting the highly skilled, foreign workers who help create more jobs for all Americans.''