Thread: Immigration Amendments Loom on Upcoming Bills, Sessions Says

I just called my senators and told them that we will be watching them and that if they vote for the Dream Act or any other benefits for illegal aliens or their families that the internet will be ablaze with their votes.

I also asked why we do not hear them speaking out against the Birthright Citizenship and Mexican trucks.

It is good to call this weekend so they will have their mailboxes full Monday morning.

Psalm 91

Please keep calling. American students would get the shaft, while illegals would get red carpet amnesty and in-state tuition. Outrageous!

Foes line up to oppose Dream Act
Posted on Fri, Sep. 14, 2007

BY LESLEY CLARK
lclark@MiamiHerald.com

WASHINGTON --
Months after the collapse of a sweeping immigration overhaul, a top Senate Democrat plans to push for a smaller measure that could give tens of thousands of undocumented high school and college students a shot at legalization.

The legislation, known as the Dream Act, could give students who were brought to the United States before they were 16 a chance for residency if they graduate high school, stay out of trouble and complete at least two years of college or enlist in the military.

Immigration advocates say the legislation, which Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., hopes to introduce as soon as next week, is the best chance for students like brothers Juan and Alex Gomez, who came to the United States as infants, were educated in Miami-Dade public schools and are now fighting orders of deportation to Colombia.

But opponents already are gearing up, hoping to torpedo the measure, which they consider ``piecemeal amnesty.''

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who who helped derail the immigration bill, this week sent out a letter to his colleagues, warning that ''a conservative estimate suggests that at least one million illegal aliens will qualify'' for the provision.

Though Sessions' opposition is not unexpected, it represents one of the considerable hurdles the legislation has faced since it was introduced in 2001. The climate for passage may be particularly tough this year, with anti-immigration advocates emboldened by the defeat of the larger immigration bill, which had the backing of President Bush and Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, the general chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Pro-Dream Act groups are unlikely to have Martinez's support this time around. Durbin plans to offer it as an amendment to the Defense Department authorization bill. A spokesman for Martinez said Friday that the senator doesn't support ''adding immigration-related amendments'' to the defense bill.

Durbin acknowledges the uphill battle, but said he has bipartisan backing and is working both sides to garner more support.

''Thousands of young people are counting on this effort,'' said Durbin, who argued on the Senate floor that ``we can allow a generation of immigrant students with great potential and ambitions to contribute more fully to our society and national security, or we can relegate them to a future in the shadows.''

Durbin suggested the act could boost military recruiting efforts and is hoping interest from the Defense Department will persuade some of the bill's critics to take a second look.

Bill Carr, acting deputy undersecretary of defense for military personnel policy, told representatives of veterans' group in June that the measure -- which was then part of the immigration bill -- could ``boost military recruiting.''

A Defense Department's news agency article quoted Carr as saying that because the provision applies to the ''cream of the crop'' of students, it would be ''very appealing'' to the military.

Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, which represents the Gomez brothers, says the act is the best opportunity for the Kendall brothers to stay in the United States.

''They've done everything right, studied hard, worked hard. Why wouldn't we take advantage of that?'' she said. ``It's counterintuitive to be deporting success stories.''

But groups that favor stricter caps on immigration argue that the law doesn't make exceptions.

''I'm somewhat sympathetic, but in the eyes of the law they are illegal, regardless of age or however gifted they are as students,'' said John Keeley of the Center for Immigration Studies. Keeley acknowledged the bill would affect a small ``but to the extent it's passed and signed into law, it creates momentum for more of its kind.''

Sessions argues in his letter to his Senate colleagues that the Dream Act and a separate immigration measure that Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is pursuing ''would provide amnesty to approximately four million illegal aliens [roughly one third of the current illegal alien population].'' Feinstein's AgJOBS bill would allow agricultural workers to obtain legal status.

Among Sessions' complaints: it would eliminate a federal provision that discourages states from providing in-state tuition to undocumented immigrant students.

The act, he says, would ``allow future illegal aliens to qualify for in-state tuition even when it is not offered to citizens and legal permanent resident students living just across state lines.''

And Sessions argues that the act ''is not just for children and young adults.'' It only requires that the immigrant's illegal entry occur before they were 16 years old and says nothing about their current age.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breakin ... 38199.html

Thanks for posting the above story controlledimmigration. NumbersUSA still says we're behind so we have to ramp up the pressure, get more people to call, get the word out to talk radio, the blogosphere etc.

Please everyone, spread the word, call the Senate now: NO to the Dream Act!

It might be possible to make some calls this weekend and leave them on voice mail.

Senator Jeff Sessions has been our greatest friend in pointing out the facts. The Dream Act is our biggest nightmare!

Originally Posted by butterbean

Senator Jeff Sessions has been our greatest friend in pointing out the facts. The Dream Act is our biggest nightmare!

Ya- I wish he was from Ill. - I have DICK Durbin!

Please be sure to include Mitch McConnell in your calls against the Dream Act, as the pro-Dream Act/amnesty folks have been blitzing him (and other Senate leaders) with calls as they know he has influence as minority leader.

INVASION USA
Amnesty for illegals back in 2nd attempt
Amendments to defense funding bill subject of debate in Senate this week

Posted: September 16, 2007
4:40 p.m. Eastern


By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

President Bush's comprehensive immigration reform, defeated in June, will make a second appearance this week when the Senate takes up various pro-amnesty amendments submitted to the Department of Defense funding bill, H.R. 1585, which is scheduled for debate.

While not "comprehensive" reform, the latest initiative attempts to pass key provisions of the earlier immigration measure piece by piece by attaching amendments to unrelated bills, a process critics characterize as "stealth."


Sen. Dick Durbin

Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin, D-Ill., has re-introduced another version of his "Dream Act," this time as an amendment (SA 2237) to the DOD funding bill.

The Dream Act would grant citizenship status to certain illegal aliens under 16 years of age who are pursuing college degrees and would allow them to receive in-state college tuition rates on an equal basis with U.S. citizens.

Steve Elliot, president of Grassfire.org, told WND his group plans to launch next week a nationwide awareness campaign to voice opposition to the Durbin amendment.

According to Numbers USA, the Dream Act amendment allows an illegal alien to remain in the U.S. on a track headed for citizenship, provided:

1. the illegal alien can demonstrate continuous presence in the U.S. for five years and was not yet 16 years old upon initial entry;

2. the illegal alien is of "good moral character" and is not inadmissible on criminal grounds or because the illegal alien is a national security risk; an

3. the illegal alien has been admitted to an institution of higher education, has attained a high school diploma, or has obtained a GED in the U.S.

Critics charge the Dream Act is a free pass to millions of illegal aliens, especially given the rampant documentation and identity theft fraud accompanying illegal immigration for decades.

One set of amendments that won't be debated are three filed last spring by Sen. John Cornyn, R.-Texas. SA 2140, SA 2141, and 2142 would greatly expand H-1B visas, granting U.S. corporations an increased number of immigrants, largely from India, to compete on a low-cost basis with U.S. college-trained graduates with comparable technical skills.

Cornyn co-chairs the U.S.-India Caucus in the Senate along with Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.

Sen. Cornyn's office assured WND yesterday the senator has no current intention of offering these amendments at this time to the DOD funding bill being debated this week.

"It's getting late and it's time to pass the Department of Defense funding bill," a spokesman for Cornyn's office told WND, "but we don't see the advantage of tacking on a lot of extraneous measures to the bill that have nothing to do with national defense."

Cornyn's H-1B amendments would have increased by several hundred thousand the number of technically-trained immigrants allowed to work in the U.S., despite evidence many H-1B visa workers remain in the U.S. after their visas have expired.

An article written by globalization-advocates Kenneth Scheve, a political science professor at Yale, and Matthew Slaughter, an economics professor at Dartmouth, in the July/August issue of the Council on Foreign Relations magazine, Foreign Affairs, worries that recently released data will cause a backlash against "free trade" measures, given the adverse impact on U.S. earnings since George W. Bush took office as president.

Scheve and Slaughter cite U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics studies demonstrating 96.6 percent of all U.S. workers – including college educated and technically trained-workers – have lost real wages since 2000.

The only wage earners who have gained real wages since 2000 are a "thriving elite" of CEOs who head multi-national corporations and the MBAs, Ph.D.s, and lawyers who advise these multi-nationals, according the Bureau data.

WND reported last week Cornyn's offer of a side-by-side amendment to defeat an amendment by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., to remove funding from the Fiscal Year 2008 Department of Transportation appropriations bill for the department's trucking demonstration project to allow Mexican trucks on U.S. highways.

During the debate, Cornyn offered a mistaken argument from the Senate floor that the U.S. had a "treaty obligation" under the North American Free Trade Act to allow Mexican trucks into the U.S.

The Senate never passed NAFTA as a treaty. Lacking the two-thirds vote needed for passage of a treaty in the Senate, President Clinton submitted NAFTA to Congress as a law.

WND reported the Dorgan amendment passed by a bipartisan vote of 75-23. The vote originally was 74-24, but Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., later changed her tally.

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.a ... E_ID=57672

Nouveauxpoor I used parts of your post to formulate another letter to my senators, I hope your okay with that?

Here it is:
------------------------------------

Senators Obama and Durbin,

Please do not endanger funding for our troops by risking the Department of Defense funding bill with the attachment of the "Dream Act," amendment (SA 2237). Or are we looking at another underhanded trick by you and your party at stopping funding to our military? Which in either case is wrong and the voting public is against either move.

The Dream Act would grant citizenship status to certain illegal aliens under 16 years of age who are pursuing college degrees and would allow them to receive in-state college tuition rates on an equal basis with U.S. citizens.

If for no other reason then illegal aliens receiving in-state college tuition rates on an equal basis with U.S. citizens. This is a giant slap in the face to every American that works hard getting their children into college. Also, there are many Americans that cannot afford that. That’s whom you should be aiding, not the illegal aliens.

The Dream Act amendment allows an illegal alien to remain in the U.S. on a track headed for citizenship, provided:


To address the three main points of the Dream Act;

Point 1. The illegal alien can demonstrate continuous presence in the U.S. for five years and was not yet 16 years old upon initial entry;

They are still lawbreakers, and that dose not change. And what makes you think you can just over look volitions, just because you do not like that law. This would be setting a very dangers precedent, allowing criminals the right for forgiveness, just because the law they broke is not liked by them. Anarchy will prevail (a state of society without government or law.).

Another major flaw in this; “not yet 16 years old upon initial entryâ€