Thread: Team America had this to say about Friday, December 16

Team America: A Political Action Committee Dedicated to Securing our Nation's Borders

Great victory for us! House votes yes for border fence; mandatory employer background checks, and puts a hold guest-worker program!

Washington -- The House passed a sweeping crackdown on illegal immigration Friday, but the debate exposed a deep, angry rift among Republicans -- even within border states such as California -- over how to deal with the 700,000 people entering the country illegally each year and the 11 million already here.

House leaders had to quell dual rebellions within their own ranks, one from the restrictionist wing of the GOP that wanted even tougher laws, and the other from those advocating broader avenues to legal entry.

The bill passed 239-182 with 36 Democrats joining a majority of the Republicans in support. Seventeen Republicans voted against the measure. All the Bay Area House Democrats opposed the bill while the area's lone Republican, Rep. Richard Pombo of Tracy, backed it.

The bill created the unusual alliances in which Democrats handed rare praise to President Bush -- whose demand for a big new guest worker program was ignored by his party in the House -- and Republicans denounced their erstwhile allies in business, who were angry about the enormous new penalties and enforcement requirements in the bill.

The House bill conflicts sharply with a plan Bush first laid out two years ago and again in Arizona last month, as well as two major immigration bills in the Senate. All these tighten border controls but also create programs to allow large numbers of immigrants to enter the country for temporary jobs without obtaining green cards or applying for citizenship.

Immigration also divides Democrats, 50 of whom voted for an amendment to build a fence along 700 miles of the Mexican border and to study barriers on the Canadian border, too.

The Mexican government attacked the legislation. "A migratory reform that only addresses security will not resolve the bilateral immigration problem," said Ruben Aguilar, spokesman for Mexican president Vicente Fox. "Our countrymen make an enormous contribution to the United States economy."

The California portions of the fence would be installed bordering Tecate and Calexico.

The 169-page bill -- HR4437, the Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 -- with about three dozen amendments, would among other things criminalize "illegal presence" in the United States, require businesses to verify the status of all 147 million U.S. workers, restrict court review of immigration decisions, deport violators immediately, and deputize local sheriffs along the border to arrest illegal immigrants.

The bill would withhold federal reimbursement for the incarceration of illegal immigrants from so-called "sanctuary cities," including San Francisco, that do not require local police to report illegal immigrants to federal authorities.

Some sheriffs and local police support the idea; others worry it will make illegal immigrants fearful of reporting crimes and prey to criminals.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, the Wisconsin Republican who sponsored the bill, watered down a provision that would have made illegal presence in the country an aggravated felony. He changed it to criminal misdemeanor. Currently, it is a civil violation.

The House GOP leadership also wouldn't allow a vote on a proposed amendment to deny citizenship to the children born in this country to illegal immigrants.

Senate Republicans called the House bill flawed because it has no guest worker program. A bipartisan bill by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., would permit 400,000 workers to enter legally each year after paying back taxes and fines. A more restrictive bill by Republicans Jon Kyl of Arizona and John Cornyn of Texas would require workers to leave the country to apply for guest worker visas. Senate leaders promise to take up immigration in February.

Lobbyists said the White House has insisted in top-level meetings that Bush will not sign a bill without a guest worker program.

Advocates of a guest worker program say one of the key reasons for illegal immigration is the mismatch between the 5,000 visas available to unskilled workers and the enormous demand for labor in the food, hospitality, construction, farm and other industries.

Today's immigration laws, they say, are like Prohibition and the 55-mile-per-hour speed limit: They deny reality and invite lawbreaking.

"Nobody in this body, not one, is advocating that we round up and deport those who are here illegally now," said Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. "Unless we have a program for them to go into, we simply won't enforce the law. And that's the dirty little secret here."

But proponents of the House bill argued the government must enforce current law before allowing more immigrants. Business just wants cheap labor at the expense of native workers, they said, and the fence will help stop drug and smuggling cartels.

"A guest worker scheme is based on the same defeatist notion -- we can't stop it so we might as well legalize it -- used by proponents of legalizing drugs and prostitution," said Rep. J.D. Hayworth, also an Arizona Republican.

Both parties are torn by two conflicting political imperatives and one indisputable fact: public anger over near record levels of immigration, the growing power of Latino voters, and the breakdown of the current system.

Dismissing the wrath of the business community, Rep. Gary Miller, R-Diamond Bar (Los Angeles County), declared, "I'm worried about wrath of people who have lost their jobs." Illegal immigration, he said, is "the No. 1 issue I hear in California."

But Rep. George Radanovich, R- Fresno, warned that if the House does accept a guest worker bill, it will create "an economic disaster not only in California, but all across the country."

He warned that Central Valley farmers had trouble finding labor to harvest crops last fall. If all the government does is tighten the border and penalize employers, he said, "then those agriculture jobs are going to be outsourced. They're going to leave the country. California agriculture is the biggest economy in the state, over $35 billion, and we can't afford to lose it."

The House bill conflicts sharply with a plan Bush first laid out two years ago and again in Arizona last month, as well as two major immigration bills in the Senate. All these tighten border controls but also create programs to allow large numbers of immigrants to enter the country for temporary jobs without obtaining green cards or applying for citizenship.

This is why I say we are up against a HUGE BLOCK of people in the Senate who support the Guestworker plan and we will have a battle to beat all battles once it gets to the Senate.

Lobbyists said the White House has insisted in top-level meetings that Bush will not sign a bill without a guest worker program.

And, they will be doing everything in their power--up to and including dirty tricks--to get this provision added back in.

There is no mismatch Americans are reluctant to give the right to immigrate to individuals and families whose tax payments will fall well below the benefits they demand from government. If the potential immigrants are to be allowed in or the illegals given amnesty they will hurt the prospects of Americans and legal immigrants who compete for the same jobs. Even in agriculture and landscaping and in drywall hanging the Americans and legal immigrants outnumber illegal aliens.

Somebody needs to take Bush out behind the woodshed and talk some sense into him.
Team America, by the way, belongs to Tom Tancredo.