01:00 AM EST on Tuesday, March 28, 2006

BY SCOTT MacKAY
Journal Staff Writer

With immigration legislation on the front burner in Washington, Rhode Island's senators and representatives said yesterday they support a compromise measure that would permit immigrants in the United States illegally to apply for legal residence after undergoing criminal-background checks, taking civics lessons, paying back taxes and learning English.

In separate interviews, U.S. Senators Jack Reed, a Democrat, and Lincoln Chafee, a Republican, and the state's two Democratic representatives, James Langevin and Patrick Kennedy, all said they favor the concepts of legislation cosponsored by Senators John McCain, R-Ariz., and Kennedy's father, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.

Under the Kennedy-McCain measure, the estimated 11 million immigrants in the country illegally would be put on a path to gain citizenship, but they would have to get in line behind others seeking to gain American residence legally.

"I think the concept of the McCain-Kennedy legislation is a good one," said Reed, who was in Warwick yesterday, as was Chafee. "These are a complicated set of issues and there is going to have to be a whole lot of discussion and many amendments."

Reed said he hopes that Senate Republicans do not support a plan by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee that would take a more punitive approach toward people here illegally. Under Frist's measure, the U.S. borders would be tightened and employers who hire undocumented aliens would be punished.

The U.S. House has approved a bill with many of Frist's objectives, legislation opposed by both Kennedy and Langevin.

Reed said that "long-term border security" must be one of the objectives of any immigration legislation, but he also said there ought to be a way for people who have been here for years, obey the law and work to be put "on a pathway to citizenship."

The issue has created a split in the Republican Party between social conservatives, who worry that unfettered immigration from Mexico and other countries is harming American culture, and economic conservatives, who see the need for immigrants who often take low-paying jobs that most U.S. citizens do not want, such as working on farms, in restaurant kitchens, and in unskilled construction positions.

"Immigration provokes high emotions, even here in Rhode Island," said Chafee, who is a cosponsor of the McCain-Kennedy legislation. "I think we've got to keep our wits about us and address this in a very rational way."

One reason, Chafee said, that he trusts McCain on the issue is that McCain hails from a border state that has seen waves of illegal immigration from Mexico.

"I think this bill is a good compromise," said Chafee. "Senator McCain is from a border state and he understands this issue; who better to trust on this one more than John McCain."

Chafee said the reality is that with so many immigrants living and working in the United States, a way must be found to get them legal residence. "If they are living here and contributing, it isn't fair that they are living under the fear every day that there is going to be a knock at the door . . . that's no way to have to live."

"Rounding up and deporting every immigrant without a visa is neither fair nor practical," Langevin said in a telephone interview.

Kennedy said many myths and prejudices surround immigration, especially that it is a problem perpetuated mainly by Hispanics. "I think the biggest illegal immigration problem in the Northeast is the Irish, including young people who come here to work in the hospitality industry and overstay their visas."

"So maybe you have to round up the kids with red hair and freckles," quipped Kennedy, who is of Irish descent and has red hair and a freckled complexion.

Kennedy said he supports his father's approach toward immigration because it is comprehensive. It is not an easy amnesty, Kennedy noted, saying that every undocumented immigrant seeking legal residence in the United States would have to undergo background checks, pay back taxes and penalties, learn English, take civics lessons and "get in line behind the others trying to get in legally."

Interviewed by phone from Washington yesterday, Kennedy said his father's bill also calls for strengthening border security.

"For years we have been looking for an easy silver-bullet approach to this problem," said Kennedy. "The result has been that we haven't done anything. My father and Senator McCain have come up with something that we ought to take seriously."

smackay@projo.com / (401) 277-7321