Some lower-level immigration-related fights are brewing in Congress this week, including a decision on whether the federal government will continue to sue the Salvation Army over its English policy.

At issue is a provision in a Senate spending bill that would stop the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's lawsuit. The House last week voted to agree with the Senate, though it was a non-binding vote. Now Hispanic House Democrats are furious.

The showdown comes tomorrow when House and Senate negotiators meet to try to finalize that spending bill, and will have to decide whether to keep the provision in.

The EEOC is suing over a Framingham, Mass., Salvation Army story policy that says only English may be spoken in the workplace. The two employee had worked at the store for several years when the store decided to enforce its English-only policy. It gave the employees a year to learn English to a proficient level, and fired them when they failed to do so. EEOC says there's no legitimate business reason for requiring English.

Also up on Tuesday is a House hearing on HR 3287, the Tumacacori Highlands Wilderness Act, proposed by Rep. Raul Grijalva. The Land Rights Network, a group that opposes added restrictions on federal lands, says the bill would create a wilderness area "exactly where a major illegal immigration traffic area and drug smuggling pathway already exists." They fear new restrictions would only give illegal aliens a safer path to Interstate 19, which runs from the border into Tucson, Ariz.

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times