Thread: Lawmakers Brace for Immigration Backlash



Lawmakers Brace for Immigration Backlash

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS
The Associated Press
Thursday, May 24, 2007; 12:34 PM



WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration and key congressional Democrats and Republicans stepped up their efforts to sell a broad immigration compromise Thursday as lawmakers braced for a public backlash at home.

"Many Americans are rightly skeptical about immigration reform," President Bush said in a Rose Garden news conference. "This bill provides the best chance to reform our immigration system and help us make certain we know who's in our country and where they are."

With Congress set to break for a weeklong Memorial Day recess, supporters and opponents of the compromise were scrambling to shape public perceptions of the immigration overhaul.

It grants quick legal status to an estimated 12 million unlawful immigrants while strengthening border security and creating a temporary worker program for new arrivals.

Proponents were working to refute criticism that the measure is too lenient by playing up border security and worker verification measures that would force employers to check the identity of everyone they hire.

They highlighted the hurdles illegal immigrants would have to scale _ including fines, background checks and holding down a job _ to gain lawful status through a new "Z visa."

"This bill does not grant amnesty. Amnesty is forgiveness without a penalty," Bush said.

Critics argue the measure could invite new waves of illegal immigrants by rewarding those already here.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said she would push when Congress returns from its break to make illegal immigrants leave the country before they could obtain a Z visa. The bill only requires heads of households seeking a green card for permanent legal residency to return home.

The Senate was expected to vote Thursday on a proposal by Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., to allow federal, state or local authorities to question people about their immigration status if the officials had probable cause to believe the individuals were in the U.S. illegally.

Senators were also set to weigh in again on the measure's temporary worker program. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. was seeking to sunset the program after five years _ a move that drew intense opposition from some of the bill's authors.

"This is one of those killer amendments," said Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.

The Congressional Budget Office told senators Wednesday that the measure would reduce the deficit by $37 billion over 10 years, mostly due to the increase in payroll taxes expected from the anticipated jump in legal immigrant workers.

The budget office estimated that Congress would have to allocate about $40 billion over a decade to implement the bill, with the largest expenditures coming from new border security and worksite enforcement measures.

Meanwhile, interest groups which have mixed views of the measure were mobilizing to activate a public clamor across the nation for action on immigration.

The Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform unveiled Internet and radio ads quoting Kennedy, an architect of the bill, as saying it was "not perfect."

"That's why it's urgent to elevate our voice to achieve the improvements our community needs," said the spot, which is to run in heavily Hispanic media markets.

© 2007 The Associated Press

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01023.html

"This bill does not grant amnesty. Amnesty is forgiveness without a penalty," Bush said.

Obviously our president needs to re-learn the word amnesty.
Nowhere does it say in the definition of the word amnesty that it is a penalty WITHOUT a penalty.
This word is closely related to the word pardon. Well according to the actions of being pardoned, you have to be punished first! And as we all know, illegals are not being punished.

am·nes·ty /ˈæmnəsti/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[am-nuh-stee] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation noun, plural -ties, verb, -tied, -ty·ing.
–noun 1. a general pardon for offenses, esp. political offenses, against a government, often granted before any trial or conviction.
2. Law. an act of forgiveness for past offenses, esp. to a class of persons as a whole.
3. a forgetting or overlooking of any past offense.
–verb (used with object) 4. to grant amnesty to; pardon.


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The Senate was expected to vote Thursday on a proposal by Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., to allow federal, state or local authorities to question people about their immigration status if the officials had probable cause to believe the individuals were in the U.S. illegally.

Oh my! Does this mean that this bill currently prohibits local and state authorities from enforcing immigration laws as many have started to do????

W

This measure FAILED today 49 to 48!
As did the Sunset provision that would have let Senate revisit the Guest worker program in five years and correct it if it was causing harm to the American worker. Again 49 to 48

Bush sounds like a broken record.