Senators reject biometric tracking in immigration reform

A traveler uses a biometric scanner at the George H.W. Bush Intercontinental Airport in 2008. (Dave Einsel/Getty …

A bipartisan group of senators voted against adding a biometric system to the sweeping immigration reform bill that would ensure people on tourist, student and other temporary visas leave the country when they are supposed to. The failed amendment was one of the most controversial additions to the bill considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee at Tuesday's hearing.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, a Republican from Alabama, backed the amendment that would have required the government to use fingerprints and other biometric data to track visitors when they leave the country at airports and other ports of exit. Democrats, including Sens. Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin, argued the system would be too expensive to implement. It was voted down 6-12, with two Republicans joining the 10 Democrats in opposing it. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina who helped draft the original bill, said he opposed the amendment because the government hasn't shown "the will or the desire" to implement the system, and he doubted including it in the bill would change that.

Despite some conservative opposition to the immigration bill, attempts to significantly alter the bill have failed in the committee mark-up process so far.

The current immigration reform bill seeks to legalize most of the 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the country and prevent future illegal immigration though an employment verification system and more border security measures. About 40 percent of the unauthorized immigrants currently in the country entered legally and then overstayed their visas, which Sessions argued raises national security concerns.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, Congress passed a bill mandating that the government institute a biometric tracking system for people on temporary, nonimmigrant visas such as for tourism. Twelve years later, the system still hasn't been implemented due to cost and other complications.

The Department of Homeland Security estimated it would cost up to $6.4 billion to implement a biometric tracking system in the nation's airports, according to a report in USA Today. It's unclear how much it would cost to install similar technology in the country's land ports, where nearly 80 percent of people enter the United States.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said at the hearing that he was concerned that requiring the biometric system would delay the citizenship process for the 11 million unauthorized immigrants who will benefit from the bill. The amendment said none of those immigrants would be able to apply for citizenship before the biometric system was put in place. The current bill lays out a 10-year waiting period for citizenship for the group.

A spokesman for Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida and a member of the "Gang of Eight" that drafted the bill, told The Hill he was "disappointed" with the vote, and that he would try to reintroduce it once senators begin debating the bill on the Senate floor.

Another rejected amendment, introduced by Sessions on Tuesday, sought to significantly reduce future legal immigration. Sessions argued it would help the American economy to keep legal immigration numbers down. All of Sessions' colleagues on the committee, Republican and Democrat, voted against the measure.

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European, U.S. retailers split on Bangladesh reform plan

By Ruma Paul and Serajul Quadir

DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladeshi salvage workers on Monday neared the end of their search for victims of the collapse of a factory building, scouring the basement of the complex that crumbled in on itself and killed 1,127 people.

A series of deadly incidents at factories, including a fire in November that killed 112 people, has focused global attention on safety standards in Bangladesh's booming garment industry.

The toll of 1,127 - the world's most deadly industrial accident since 1984 Bhopal disaster in India - could be the final one as no more bodies were found on Monday, a spokesman at the army control room coordinating the salvage operation said.

"The rescuers have reached the basement where the chances of finding more dead bodies are very low," said Captain Tazul Islam.

The site will be handed over to the district administration on Tuesday on completion of salvage work, according to army spokesman Shahinul Islam.

Reshma Begum, 19, a Bangladeshi woman who spent 17 days buried alive under factory rubble until her dramatic rescue on Friday, made her first public appearance on Monday and said she drew on mental fortitude to survive.

"After ... much time I regained my senses and heard several voices (of other victims) around me who cried out and said please give me water ... I replied where shall I get water? I could not see anything as it was dark everywhere," Begum said.

She said she eventually managed to find a packet of biscuits which she ate as well as two bottles of water that helped slake her terrible thirst. "After that there was nothing to eat."

She said she could hear many other victims weeping under the wreckage. "But I did not fear. I don't know where I got so much mental strength. I never thought that I could survive. It is the almighty Allah who saved me," said Begum, who doctors said has been recovering from acute dehydration.

The cabinet approved an amendment to Bangladesh's labor laws on Monday, paving the way for parliament to allow garment workers to form unions without prior employer approval to help improve their job conditions, especially safety standards.

International labor and human rights groups had long campaigned for workers to be able to form establish unions without such approval. The amendment was endorsed a day after the government decided to form a wage board to consider pay increases for readymade garment workers.

Average monthly minimum wages now stand at the equivalent of $38 after an increase of about 80 percent in 2010 in response to months of violent street protests.

UNREST TRIGGERS FACTORY CLOSURES

Worker unrest prompted authorities to shut down more than 300 garment factories for indefinite periods in the Ashulia industrial belt, on the outskirts of the capital Dhaka, that accounts for nearly 20 percent of total exports.

"Owners decided to close their factories on safety grounds after workers went on a rampage almost every day after the collapse of Rana Plaza," said Mohammad Atiqul Islam, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

Eight people were killed in a fire at a factory last week that an industry association said may have been arson.

About 2,500 people were rescued from the Rana Plaza, in Savar, a commercial suburb of Dhaka, after the April 24 collapse. Many survivors suffered serious injuries.

The disaster, believed to have been triggered when generators were started up during a blackout, has raised questions about the use by Western retailers of the impoverished South Asian nation as a source of cheap goods.

Nine people have been arrested in connection with the disaster, including the building's owner and bosses of the factories it housed.

The government has accused the owners and builders of the eight-storey complex of using shoddy building materials, including substandard rods, bricks and cement, and of not obtaining the necessary clearances.

Bangladesh's garment industry accounts for 80 percent of its exports. Low wages have helped lift Bangladesh to number two in the global ranking of exporters, behind China.

Bangladesh ranked last in minimum wages for factory workers in 2010, according to World Bank data, behind Cambodia.

(Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Egypt president, judges compromising on reform law

CAIRO (AP) — The Egyptian president's office is indicating a compromise has been reached with the judiciary to defuse an uproar over a proposed law that would have forced out thousands of the country's most senior judges.

President Mohammed Morsi met Sunday with five top judges after more than a week of bitter arguing between Islamists and some in the judiciary over the disputed bill, which would lower the retirement age.

The president's allies say the courts are filled with loyalists of the deposed regime of Hosni Mubarak. The opposition accuses Morsi's backers of calling for reform of the judiciary as a cover to install their own supporters.

After the meeting, a statement from the president's office said Morsi is launching a conference to include judges in any laws about the justice system.

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Cameron to meet EU leaders to push reform plan

By Peter Griffiths

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron hopes to overcome opposition to his plan to claw back power from Brussels when he meets the leaders of Germany, France and Spain this week for talks on Britain's future in the European Union.

Cameron infuriated European allies in January when he said he would try to renegotiate terms of Britain's EU membership and ask voters in a referendum if they wanted to stay in the bloc.

France and Germany accused him of treating the EU like an "a la carte menu" from which he could pick powers. The opposition Labour Party said Britain risked sleepwalking towards EU exit.

Facing hostility to his policy across the continent, Cameron faces an uphill battle when he meets Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in Madrid on Monday. He flies to Paris later that day to meet French President Francois Hollande before going to Germany on Friday for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Cameron will argue the euro zone crisis means it is inevitable that the EU will undergo big changes and reform its treaties, allowing Britain to forge a new role.

"This is not about cherry-picking, but to argue as some do that you can't have a flexible Europe is wrong," he said in a statement. "We can have a flexible Europe where we don't all have to do the same things in the same way at the same time."

Cameron will press the case for an EU in which countries have different roles. He will point to the fact that not all members, including Britain, signed up to the euro currency. London also stayed out of the border-free Schengen zone.

'RIPE FOR REFORM'

Cameron must come from behind in the polls, win re-election in 2015 and persuade EU leaders to allow him to reclaim powers from Brussels before British voters would have their say in a referendum on Europe.

The scale of his task was made clear in January when European politicians denounced his setpiece speech on Europe as unrealistic and divisive.

Seeking to take the initiative, Cameron will frame his case for reform as part of a wider appeal for the EU to become leaner and more competitive.

He will seek to win support in Europe with a call to reduce the bloc's spending and red tape.

"This organisation is ripe for reform," he said. "We need a Europe that is more open, that is more competitive, that is more flexible."

Cameron faces a dilemma over Europe. He believes Britain is stronger inside the bloc. However vocal anti-EU parliamentarians in his Conservative Party, who see Brussels as a threat to British sovereignty, want him to take a tougher line with the EU or leave altogether.

Pressure on Cameron over Europe has grown because the UK Independence Party, which wants Britain to exit the EU, has poached voters from his Conservatives. Disagreement over Europe plagued the last two Conservative governments under former prime ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major.

(Editing by Jason Webb)

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Britain's Cameron to meet EU leaders to push reform plan

By Peter Griffiths

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron hopes to overcome opposition to his plan to claw back power from Brussels when he meets the leaders of Germany, France and Spain this week for talks on Britain's future in the European Union.

Cameron infuriated European allies in January when he said he would try to renegotiate terms of Britain's EU membership and ask voters in a referendum if they wanted to stay in the bloc.

France and Germany accused him of treating the EU like an "a la carte menu" from which he could pick powers. The opposition Labour Party said Britain risked sleepwalking towards EU exit.

Facing hostility to his policy across the continent, Cameron faces an uphill battle when he meets Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in Madrid on Monday. He flies to Paris later that day to meet French President Francois Hollande before going to Germany on Friday for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Cameron will argue the euro zone crisis means it is inevitable that the EU will undergo big changes and reform its treaties, allowing Britain to forge a new role.

"This is not about cherry-picking, but to argue as some do that you can't have a flexible Europe is wrong," he said in a statement. "We can have a flexible Europe where we don't all have to do the same things in the same way at the same time."

Cameron will press the case for an EU in which countries have different roles. He will point to the fact that not all members, including Britain, signed up to the euro currency. London also stayed out of the border-free Schengen zone.

'RIPE FOR REFORM'

Cameron must come from behind in the polls, win re-election in 2015 and persuade EU leaders to allow him to reclaim powers from Brussels before British voters would have their say in a referendum on Europe.

The scale of his task was made clear in January when European politicians denounced his setpiece speech on Europe as unrealistic and divisive.

Seeking to take the initiative, Cameron will frame his case for reform as part of a wider appeal for the EU to become leaner and more competitive.

He will seek to win support in Europe with a call to reduce the bloc's spending and red tape.

"This organisation is ripe for reform," he said. "We need a Europe that is more open, that is more competitive, that is more flexible."

Cameron faces a dilemma over Europe. He believes Britain is stronger inside the bloc. However vocal anti-EU parliamentarians in his Conservative Party, who see Brussels as a threat to British sovereignty, want him to take a tougher line with the EU or leave altogether.

Pressure on Cameron over Europe has grown because the UK Independence Party, which wants Britain to exit the EU, has poached voters from his Conservatives. Disagreement over Europe plagued the last two Conservative governments under former prime ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major.

(Editing by Jason Webb)

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Sen. Ron Johnson: Might 'Look at' Revenue With Entitlement Reform

Johnson 'might look at' new revenues if they are brought into entitlement reform

JOHNSON: Listen, if you - if you're taking a look at, in a entitlement reform package, in term - you know actually bringing in revenue for those entitlement reforms, I might look at that. But the fact of the matter is - the fact of the matter is, we already have a $1 trillion in middle income tax increases hitting us in Obamacare. They're hidden, but it's middle-class…

Below you can find some of the notable comments made Sunday on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." Guests included former Florida Governor Jeb Bush; Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.; DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla.; ABC News' George Will; Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman; and Bloomberg News White House correspondent Julianna Goldman.

Krugman says Bush's 'big whopper' is that he has no 'impressive' plan for the economy

KRUGMAN: So, I just learned something really important from this interview about Jeb Bush which is he's one of those people who says frankly just before he delivers a big whopper. So that frankly we're going to deal with the deficit by economic growth. Come on. He has no plan.

Johnson and Krugman spar over the facts of entitlement reform

KRUGMAN: Just a question, you say let's start with the facts, but there - we've just - we've just run aground right there, we cannot agree on…

JOHNSON: You've made my point - you've made my point, we have to agree on the facts.

KRUGMAN: But your facts are false.

JOHNSON: No they are not. They are not false.

KRUGMAN: The Social Security thing, Social Security is - there - it has a dedicated revenue base. It has a trust fund based on that dedicated revenue base. You can't change the rules midstream and say, oh suddenly…

JOHNSON: See here's - here's the problem, here's the problem with the trust fund, the federal government owns U.S. Treasury bonds, it's the same thing as if you have $20.00, you spend it. And by the way, that money is spent, it's gone. You write yourself a note for $20.00, stick it in your pocket and say, I got 20-bucks.

Wasserman Schultz praises Sandberg for telling girls 'it's ok to be ambitious'

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Just look at the reaction - what the reaction to Sheryl Sandberg's book has done. It's evidence of how it is so hard for women to wear our ambition on our sleeves, to pursue our dreams, to believe that we can reach the top of any profession and that we should always shoot for the stars…and what Sheryl Sandberg has done for little girls, my two daughters and children across - little girls across America - is written a book, a manifesto that says it is OK to be ambitious. It's OK to want to have it all, that balance is important, but that there is nothing wrong with trying to have a full professional life and be a leader and succeed as a woman and also having a full family life. You don't have to choose. It can be both/and.

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Mexican union boss arrest sounds warning to reform foes

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The arrest of Mexico's best-known trade union leader on fraud charges has thrown down the gauntlet to powerful interests standing between President Enrique Pena Nieto and his plans to shake up Latin America's second-biggest economy.

For a generation, even presidents shied away from taking on teachers' union boss Elba Esther Gordillo, making her Mexico's most prominent female politician and a formidable enemy to those who accused her of fostering corruption rather than education.

Pena Nieto, who has been in office for less than three months, crossed that line on Tuesday when police arrested Gordillo and three other people with her at Toluca airport near Mexico City.

Mexican television showed Gordillo, 68, wearing a prison uniform and standing behind bars as a state prosecutor formally charged her with embezzling around $200 million from union coffers and using the money to pay for U.S. property, luxury goods, designer clothes, works of art and plastic surgery.

She is not allowed to apply for bail under the charges.

Gordillo, who deferred comment to her lawyers, faces a maximum jail sentence of 30 years, though prisoners can apply to be moved to house arrest at age 70.

"It is clearly a criminal case," Attorney General Jesus Murillo said in a television interview. "The case is very solid."

A former grandee of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, Gordillo has denied accusations of corruption.

She was snared a day after Pena Nieto signed a law aimed at improving education standards that she had opposed because it would weaken her union's clout.

The Mexican president is preparing to launch a series of ambitious measures that aim to overhaul taxes, open up state oil giant Pemex to more private capital and ease tycoon Carlos Slim's tight grip on Mexico's telecommunications industry.

"The fundamental point is that resistance by the de facto powers to reform will be confronted with energy and determination," Federico Berrueto, director general of Mexican polling firm GCE, said after Gordillo's arrest.

In Mexico, the "de facto powers" refer to various entrenched interests that include Slim's business empire and dominant broadcaster Televisa, run by Emilio Azcarraga.

Both have repeatedly fought off regulatory efforts to loosen the control they wield over their respective markets.

The government is due to unveil a major telecommunications proposal in the next few days, while separate initiatives on overhauling Pemex and boosting Mexico's weak tax take are expected to go to Congress during the second half of 2013.

The education law signed by Pena Nieto on Monday still faces a fight from Gordillo's union because it requires a secondary law to be implemented.

Changes to the energy sector could face resistance from the Pemex union so Gordillo's arrest was also interpreted as a government warning to other labor bosses that they too might face close scrutiny.

BAD BLOOD

Although Gordillo is unpopular in Mexico, her arrest has also stirred fears that Pena Nieto could be leaning toward the authoritarian past of the centrist PRI, which ruled Mexico continuously from 1929 to 2000.

Brasil Acosta, a PRI congressman from Pena Nieto's home turf, the State of Mexico, said the party had to be careful that the case against Gordillo was not brought for the wrong reasons.

"If it isn't legally proven, we'll be looking at an act of political repression, which would be dangerous," he said.

Carlos Salinas, who was president from 1988 to 1994, removed two troublesome union leaders as he embarked on his own historic reform drive, but his administration ended mired in allegations of graft.

Appointed by Salinas in 1989, Gordillo became one of the most controversial figures in Mexico.

She has been widely criticized for her lavish lifestyle and she became more vulnerable after splitting with the PRI ahead of the 2006 presidential election, when the party suffered its biggest-ever defeat.

"I imagine he (Pena Nieto) was looking to land a decisive blow against someone, and she was the easiest target," political analyst Denise Dresser told Mexican television.

Gordillo was taken to Santa Martha Acatitla women's prison on the edge of Mexico City on Tuesday night.

NO GAMES

The PRI, reviled by many Mexicans as corrupt and heavy-handed by the time it lost power in 2000, pledged to mend its ways after Pena Nieto recovered the presidency last year.

The former State of Mexico governor vowed to usher in greater accountability and transparency, and his allies are portraying the investigation into Gordillo as part of the new PRI's broader efforts to clean up Mexico.

"They send a clear message. We're not playing games when it comes to governing," said Alejandra Del Moral, a 29-year-old PRI congresswoman.

Gordillo has long been a symbol of the PRI's cozy relationship with trade unions and established interests, which critics blame for fomenting inefficiency and helping to keep the economy lagging behind its emerging market peers.

Opposition lawmakers quickly argued that to realize lasting change Pena Nieto must go further than just arresting Gordillo.

"Today we're going to demand that Pena Nieto carries on with the others in the way he started with Elba Esther," said Armando Rios Piter, a senator for the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD. "There are hundreds and perhaps thousands who represent this model of corruption."

Among these, he said, is Carlos Romero Deschamps, head of the oil workers' union at Pemex and also a PRI senator.

Revamping the state-run Pemex is one of the toughest tasks facing Pena Nieto. Created when the PRI nationalized the oil industry in 1938, the company became a symbol of Mexican self-reliance and his party has been very reluctant to touch it.

Romero Deschamps has denied taking part in corruption and fought off such allegations in the past, and both the PRD and the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, called for an investigation into his wealth after Gordillo's arrest.

With no outright majority in Congress, Pena Nieto needs support from opposition parties for any major reform of Pemex. They are likely to seek concessions in exchange for votes.

(Additional reporting by Gabriel Stargardter and Lizbeth Diaz; Editing by Kieran Murray, Simon Gardner and Paul Simao)

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