Immigration bill drive stalls due to costs

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An election-year push in the U.S. Congress to clamp down on illegal immigration has stalled as concerns grow about the cost of verifying the status of millions of workers, a leading congressional Democrat said on Thursday.

Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, a member of the Democratic leadership team in the House of Representatives, said Republicans were unlikely to win enough signatures on a petition drive to force a vote on a bill requiring employers to verify the legal status of all their workers.

Republicans, hoping to force Democrats to vote on a politically sensitive issue before the November congressional and presidential elections, began the petition drive in early March on the legislation sponsored by North Carolina Democrat Heath Shuler.

After an initial burst of interest, the number of lawmakers signing on has dwindled in recent weeks. The 186 signatures on the petition fall well short of the 218 needed to force a House vote on legislation.

"We've got a little more work to do," House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio acknowledged on Thursday.

Emanuel and other leaders said lawmakers "took a step back" after the Congressional Budget Office estimated last month the legislation would cost the federal Treasury more than $30 billion in lost tax revenues and added spending.

"I think that pretty much stopped that in its tracks," House Democratic Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina told Reuters in an interview last week.

Analysts have estimated about 12 million illegal immigrants live in the United States. The CBO, a nonpartisan congressional budget agency, said many illegal workers who now pay taxes would likely continue to work but in the underground economy outside the tax system. Also, the bill would require the government to hire thousands of new law enforcement personnel and expand detention facilities.

Critics also argued the worker verification program would overwhelm the Social Security Administration when it is preparing to process millions of retirement benefit applications from the 77 million-strong baby boom generation. The program relies on Social Security databases, and workers would have to contact the agency to correct any errors or risk losing their jobs.

A House Ways and Means subcommittee plans to hold a hearing next week on the cost of the employee verification system on the Social Security system.

Emanuel said he did not see a vote on immigration legislation before the election. Forcing a vote on a tough enforcement bill also could put Republican presidential candidate John McCain in a difficult position. His support for a broad immigration overhaul that would also have put some illegal workers on a path toward U.S. citizenship angered many conservatives in his party. (Additional reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Peter Cooney)

(donna.smith@reuters.com; 202-898-8391;Reuters Messaging: donna.smith.reuters.com@reuters.net))