Thread: Immigration Bill Faces Major Test

Immigration bill faces major test


By CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press Writer
6 minutes ago



WASHINGTON - A fragile bipartisan compromise that would legalize millions of unlawful immigrants faces a crucial test Thursday, after suffering punishing setbacks from the right and left.



A test-vote on the bill will measure lawmakers' appetite for a so-called "grand bargain" between liberals and conservatives on immigration — a top priority of President Bush that has become a hot button dividing both parties.

After surviving several potentially fatal blows, the agreement hit a major stumbling block early Thursday, when the Senate voted by the narrowest of margins to place a five-year limit on a program meant to provide U.S. employers with 200,000 temporary foreign workers annually.

The 49-48 vote came two weeks after the Senate, also by a one-vote margin, rejected the same amendment by Sen. Byron Dorgan (news, bio, voting record). The North Dakota Democrat says immigrants take many jobs Americans could fill.

The reversal dismayed backers of the immigration bill, which is loathed by many conservatives. The measure could sink altogether if proponents fail Thursday to muster the 60 votes needed to scale a procedural hurdle; otherwise, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record), D-Nev., has said he will shelve the bill and move on to other matters.

The bill would tighten borders, hike penalties for those who hire illegals and give many of the country's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants a pathway to legal status.

The Bush administration, along with business interests and their congressional allies, were already angry that the temporary worker program had been cut in half from its original 400,000-person-a-year target.

A five-year sunset, they said, could knock the legs from the precarious bipartisan coalition. The change "is a tremendous problem, but it's correctable," said Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa. Backers will try as early as Thursday to persuade at least one senator to help reverse the outcome yet again, he added.

Congress could block the legalization of millions of unlawful immigrants if it deemed the border too porous under a Republican proposal also slated for a vote on Thursday.

An amendment by conservative Sens. Tom Coburn (news, bio, voting record), R-Okla., and Jim DeMint (news, bio, voting record), R-S.C., would require a congressional vote to certify that border security and workplace enforcement "triggers" were in place before the legalization or a new guest worker program could take effect.

It was one of several challenges the measure was facing from across the political spectrum as its backers struggled to steer clear of potentially fatal changes and push it to quick passage.

Until the Dorgan vote was tallied, Specter and other architects of the compromise had succeeded in avoiding a minefield of major challenges.

They had turned back a bid to reduce the number of illegal immigrants who could gain lawful status. They also defeated an effort to allow more family members of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents to qualify for green cards.

And they fended off an amendment, by Sen. Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record), D-Ill., that would have ended a new point system for those seeking permanent resident "green cards" after five years rather than 14 years.

The Senate voted 51-46 to reject a proposal by Sen. John Cornyn (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas, to bar criminals — including those ordered by judges to be deported — from gaining legal status. Democrats siphoned support from Cornyn's proposal by winning adoption, 66-32, of a rival version that would bar a more limited set of criminals, including certain gang members and sex offenders, from gaining legalization.

Senators also rejected a proposal by Robert Menendez (news, bio, voting record), D-N.J., that would have boosted the number of immigrants who could get green cards based purely on family ties, rather than having to qualify through education or skill level.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., fell short in her bid to remove limits on visas for the spouses and minor children of immigrants with permanent resident status.

Still, several changes proposed by conservatives prevailed, including one by Cornyn that would make it easier to locate and deport illegal immigrants whose visa applications are rejected.

The bill would have barred law enforcement agencies from seeing applications for so-called Z visas that allow illegal immigrants to gain legal status. Cornyn said authorities should know if applicants have criminal records that would warrant their deportation.

Opponents said eligible applicants might be afraid to file applications if they believed they could be deported as a result.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., said in an interview that Cornyn's amendment was "not a deal-killer" but would have to be changed in House-Senate negotiations



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070607/ap_ ... n_congress

The bill would tighten borders, hike penalties for those who hire illegals and give many of the country's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants a pathway to legal status.

the 1986 amnesty promised the same thing, the third world laughed and hopped the fence and made themselves at home. if you notice once again 'the bill' tightens borders, doesn't mean our government intends to. our government just writes these things to appease us, doesn't mean they'll actual do it.

NO AMNESTY
NO GUESTWORKER PROGRAM
NO TEMPORARY WORKER PROGRAM
NO PATH TO CITIZENSHIP FOR ILLEGALS!!!!

Yes, they made all of the same promises.

Since then I have to show two forms of ID proving that I am a US citizen whenever I apply for a job. This was supposed to "guarantee" that only those workers who were here legally could get a job. Since then we have gone from 2 million illegal aliens in the country to over 12 million (some estimates put this number over 20 million).

How do the illegals do it? They simply disregard this law just like they disregard the immigration laws. They steal the identity of a legal immigrant or US citizen and the employers don't push the issue because they are not law enforcement agencies. The IRS doesn't push the issue they just collect the money and they know that they won't have to give it back.

The problem is not that we don't have laws. The problem is that nobody obeys the laws and the government is not interested in enforcing the laws. So here we go passing more laws that will also be ignored by everyone.

Welcome to ALIPAC lunarminer.

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