Immigration policy divides GOP

WASHINGTON, May 27 (UPI) -- U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., says the House and the Senate are "180 degrees apart" on immigration legislation.

The Senate proposal passed on Thursday would allow millions of illegal immigrants to apply for U.S. citizenship, while a House bill passed in December would make 11 million illegal immigrants felons, The Washington Post reported.

Sensenbrenner, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said the Senate proposal amounted to amnesty and "amnesty is wrong, because amnesty rewards someone for illegal behavior."

President George W. Bush essentially backs the Senate proposal, but Sensenbrenner said "the president is not where the American people are at."

Senate Republicans were divided Thursday voting on the immigration bill -- 23 voted for and 32 voted against it.

Until now, the GOP has been united between the corporate wing and the social conservatives, said Ross K. Baker, a Rutgers University political scientist. Now, Republicans are divided between the group that wants the cheap labor and those overwhelmed by the rising tide of immigrants, he said.

Sensenbrenner disagreed with the argument that immigrants will do work Americans don't want to do.

"Americans will do and have done any job as long as they're paid enough money," he said.