Thread: Immigration showdown Begins in US Senate

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/ ... 195073.htm

Posted on Mon, Mar. 27, 2006
Immigration showdown begins in U.S. Senate

With action near in Senate, presidential aspirations, divided voters all on the line
TIM FUNK
tfunk@charlotteobserver.com

WASHINGTON - The explosive immigration debate that has sparked rallies across the country in recent days moves to the U.S. Senate today.

The Senate Judiciary Committee's 18 members -- including Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. -- are expected to meet into the night to finish work on a 300-page bill calling for beefed-up border security, a guest-worker program for foreign workers and a plan to put many illegal immigrants on a long, winding path to U.S. citizenship.

If the panel doesn't OK the bill today, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., says he'll start a Senate floor debate Tuesday on his own bill, which has no guest-worker program and mirrors a get-tough enforcement-only immigration package passed by the House last year.

Republican senators from the Carolinas, whose states have become popular destinations for illegal immigrants, will be on the hot seat as a final vote approaches. Should they side with business groups that favor legalizing undocumented workers? Or with conservatives who consider such a move amnesty for lawbreakers?

I have recieved letters from both Burr and Dole and it is my prediction that neither will win re-election.

REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER!

I thought I read somewhere that Frist changed the debate to tuesday.