N.C. at center of borders debate

[HARDCORE]

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlot...s/13365122.htm


Charlotte Observer
Posted on Fri, Dec. 09, 2005

N.C. at center of borders debate
Myrick, others want tougher law

TIM FUNK
Charlotte Observer Writer

POLL | Should U.S. toughen illegal immigration laws?
WASHINGTON - N.C. Republicans have charged into a battle over illegal immigration that's expected to build to a dramatic House vote next week.

A key House committee voted along party lines Thursday to approve a bill -- endorsed by the chamber's Republican leaders -- that targets illegal immigration at the border and in the workplace.

But a vocal band of House conservatives -- including GOP Reps. Sue Myrick of Charlotte and Patrick McHenry of Cherryville -- is pushing to make that legislation even tougher.

Among other things, they want to build a fence along the Mexican border, deny citizenship to U.S.-born babies of illegal immigrants, and -- in Myrick's proposed amendment -- deport illegal immigrants convicted of driving drunk.

The DWI aspect of the immigration issue has sparked a fiery debate across Charlotte. In two separate car crashes, area drivers were killed by illegal Mexican immigrants charged with driving drunk.

In a reversal last week, a Latino driver was killed on Interstate 85 in Charlotte by a wrong-way pickup driven by an S.C. man who authorities believe had been drinking. He also was killed.

After the July death of Mount Holly teacher Scott Gardner, Myrick introduced a bill in his name to deport illegal immigrants after one drunken driving conviction.

The legislation that passed the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday would deport illegal and legal immigrants after three drunken driving convictions.

Myrick says that's too lenient, at least for illegal immigrants.

"I'm going to offer an amendment on the floor that says, `I don't think that we need to give them two more times to kill somebody,' " she said at a news conference staged by the 91-member House Immigration Reform Caucus.

Illegal immigration has particularly angered conservatives in North Carolina, home to an estimated 300,000 illegal immigrants. This week, Republican commissioners in Mecklenburg tried unsuccessfully to pass a plan that would deny services to illegal immigrants and refuse government contracts to businesses that employ them.

In Washington, six of North Carolina's seven Republican representatives are members of the Immigration Reform Caucus, chaired by Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Colorado Republican who could run for president on a get-tough-on-illegal-immigration platform. Rep. Mike McIntyre of Lumberton also belongs to the caucus -- he's one of its two Democrats.

A few Tar Heel Republicans have been closely identified with immigration reform and will likely play prominent roles:

? Rep. Walter Jones of Farmville lauds the Minutemen -- a private border patrol in Arizona that President Bush once called vigilantes.

? McHenry, who spoke at the news conference, filed a bill to create a federal database to track immigrants applying for visas or citizenship.

? And Myrick, who is mulling a run for governor, has filed three immigration-reform bills this year. One would deny North Carolina its federal highway money unless it stops issuing driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants. Another would boost the fine paid by businesses that knowingly employ illegal immigrants from $250 per employee to $10,000 -- with $8,000 of that reverting to local law enforcement.

Democrats on the Judiciary Committee failed to amend the House bill to authorize a temporary guest-worker program -- one of Bush's main proposals.

The Senate, which is expected to take up immigration reform in February, is more likely to approve the provision, which is popular with business.

Rep. Mel Watt, a Democrat from Charlotte, voted against the bill at the Judiciary Committee meeting.

Republicans, he said, "are just trying to change the subject from other issues that they don't want to talk about.

"When the Republicans on the county commission ... and the Republicans up here start operating in tandem on an issue, you know there's something political going on."

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The Associated Press contributed.