Sen. Mel Martinez told the Tampa Tribune editorial board today that he’ll continue pressing for immigration reform, despite the criticism his prominent role in the issue got him from the conservative wing of his own party.

Martinez has proposed an “earned citizenship” program to deal with the millions of illegal immigrants now living and working in the country.

That would include such requirements as showing proficiency in English, passing citizenship tests and paying a fine or back taxes before illegals could get citizenship or some other “normalized” status.

But to conservatives who make up much of the GOP’s base, regardless of the requirements and penalties, such a proposal means “amnesty,” and Martinez has been blasted for favoring it.

Martinez said he put heavy penalties and requirements for earned citizenship in his bill last year, hoping to prevent the “amnesty” accusation. But now, he said, he realizes he can’t stop that accusation, so he’ll proceed regardless of the critics.

He even appeared to say he would put lighter penalties into his new version of the bill. But a spokesman later said that’s not what Martinez meant.

“Dealing with the 12 million [illegal immigrants] here, we all want to say it’s not with amnesty,” he said. “Unfortunately, we allowed those who would call amnesty anything other than deportation to sort of define amnesty.”

Realistically, he said, the country can’t deport all illegal immigrants here now, so the question is what requirements to impose to bring them to “a regularized status.”

In his previous bill, “We had so many penalties and what not on these people, by the way, and trying not to make it amnesty, and it still got called amnesty. So this time around I’m going to be a little lighter on the sentences and try to just say call it what you willl. We’ve got 12 million people, we’ve got a broken-down system, we’ve just got to find a way to come to some sensible outcome.”

Spokesman Ken Lundberg said Martinez didn’t mean the sentences would be lighter, but that he would talk less about the punitive aspects of the bill.

Martinez noted that the controversy over immigration reform divided and hurt the party in last year’s mid-term election, and said it’s crucial to pass a bill.

“I’m trying to get a consensus of Republicans” on the issue, he said.

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