Thread: ALIPAC: Legal immigration advocate wants word with senator

Legal immigration advocate wants word with senator

Says key lawmaker needs to know of America's opposition to amnesty

By Naomi Laine
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com


The Senate will vote on cloture of debate for the Senate immigration reform bill today, but before debate over the plan ends, William Gheen wants a word with Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C.

Burr is a key senator; supporters of the legislation will need his vote to achieve cloture of debate, but Gheen wants Burr to vote against it, lest the bill pass into law.

"I want to speak with Sen. Burr for 15 minutes, before he votes, to make sure he has the national and North Carolina polls that show a super majority of his constituents oppose this bill and want our existing laws enforced instead," said Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, in a press release.

Burr has stated he is willing to vote for cloture if a "touchback" provision is added to the bill, requiring illegal immigrants to return to their home countries for a single day before returning to apply for a Z-visa: a visa granting probationary legal status to illegal immigrants currently in the country.

"I believe the provisional period can be whatever length of time it takes to fully vet all these people that they are who they say they are. ... It doesn't entitle them to anything except the ability to apply [for a Z-visa]," Burr said.

The touchback provision Burr is promoting seems doomed. Illegal immigrants' voluntary return to their home countries prior to application for legal American citizenship is neither realistic nor achievable, say 76 percent of Americans polled by the Wall Street Journal earlier this month.

Burr has been in talks with numerous special interest groups and big business lobbyists promoting the legislation, though every politician who has supported the bill has suffered plummeting approval ratings, Gheen said.

"We need Sen. Burr to stop negotiating with big business lobbyists, which are pushing this amnesty bill," said Gheen. "If he votes yes on cloture and this bill passes, Sen. Burr is committing political suicide. He will be proclaiming that the voice of American citizens now means nothing."

As WND reported, Bush has visited Capitol Hill in his efforts to revive the plan that died in the Senate when supporters could not muster the votes to put it on a fast track.

It would provide a path to legal status for the estimated 12-20 million illegal aliens now in the U.S. Opponents call the provision amnesty. But the White House contends the carefully crafted compromise would focus first on enforcement, allowing for more Border Patrol agents, more cameras and other technologies.

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56363

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