Thread: House crafting new border security package

http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_4301373

Article Launched: 9/07/2006 02:35 PM


House crafting new border security package

Associated Press
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

WASHINGTON - House Republicans are crafting new bills to crack down on illegal immigrants, nailing the coffin shut for now on broader legislation that would give many illegal immigrants legal status.
If the bills are approved, Republicans can go into midterm elections Nov. 7 saying they took action on illegal immigration. At the same time, they can appease conservatives who oppose giving illegal immigrants a chance at citizenship, which some have called amnesty.

``Our borders are a sieve and we are at war and we certainly need to act like we are at war. We need to close our borders,'' House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., told reporters Thursday.

House leaders will preside over a meeting next week where Republican committee chairmen will propose border security measures based on what they learned from field hearings they conducted over the past month, Hastert said.

``It won't be the whole 95 tons of what we've tried to work between the House and Senate but we will try to get some things done,'' he said.

Some possible ideas include voter identification cards and safer Social Security cards, he said.

The package also will include some immigration spending added to pending defense and homeland security appropriations bills. Congressional leaders want to get those bills to Bush this month before adjourning to campaign for the November elections.

Senate Majority Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said Wednesday it would be ``next to impossible'' to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill by the end of the month.

The House passed an enforcement-only immigration bill last December that would build 700 miles of fences on the border, require employers to verify workers are legal and subject to felony prosecution illegal immigrants and the people who help them.

The bill triggered massive street demonstrations last spring by immigrants and their advocates that helped build support for the Senate's broader immigration bill.

In June, the Senate passed a bill supported by President Bush that would let a majority of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants already in the United States remain in the country and eventually earn U.S. citizenship. It also would create a new guest worker program and toughen border security.

With elections looming, House Republicans balked at negotiating a compromise, instead holding dozens of hearings in July and August to criticize the Senate bill.

The Senate immigration bill is S 2611. The House bill is HR 4437.

Wake up Tennessee and run Bill Frist out of town on a rail

Some possible ideas include voter identification cards and safer Social Security cards, he said.

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Ya think????

Makes you wonder doesn't it americangirl? How do they make it through the day with minds like that?

Makes me feel like Einstein.

Wake up Tennessee and run Bill Frist out of town on a rail
_________________

Well, he's retiring so hopefully we can get someone better in there. In my last letter to him, I told him he was "making Tennesseans ashamed" because he lied to us on what he was going to do.

crazybird wrote:

Makes you wonder doesn't it americangirl? How do they make it through the day with minds like that?

LOL crazybird

This is very good news. NOW we'll be giving our elected representatives one more chance to sign on to a border security and enforcement bill. Any incumbents up for reelection that fail to vote yes to a security bill will no doubt find themselves in deep trouble! Now we seperate the rhetoric from the truth. Congress knows the nation will be watching closely.

It won't be the whole 95 tons of what we've tried to work between the House and Senate but we will try to get some things done,'' he said.

Yeah, they'll beef up the border before the election to get the Republican base to turn out, then will turn around and grant amnesty after. I don't trust them!