IMMIGRATION AMENDMENT MEETS WITH CRITICISM

The Bush administration strongly opposed a bipartisan amendment by Senators Charles Grassley and Barack Obama to make the immigration bill easier on employers, reports the AP. The amendment would make a new program to stop businesses from hiring illegal workers less burdensome, which Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff called “a serious step backwards” in a letter to senators.Chertoff went on to write that the amendment “eliminates needed tools and allows unscrupulous businesses to continue to freely hire illegal workers.”Obama’s amendment