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    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    'Gang of Eight' immigration bill clears Senate hurdle

    'Gang of Eight' immigration bill clears Senate hurdle

    Alan Gomez and Susan Davis, USA TODAY 3:10 p.m. EDT June 11, 2013


    President Obama speaks on the immigration measure Tuesday, June 11, 2013, in the East Room of the White House in Washington.(Photo: Evan Vucci, AP)
    Story Highlights


    • Senate will begin debating first immigration overhaul since Reagan signed 1986 bill
    • Bill would allow 11 million unauthorized immigrants to get U.S. citizenship, enhance border security
    • Republicans in Senate and House say the bill has "serious flaws" that must be fixed



    WASHINGTON — The Senate overcame a critical hurdle on Tuesday towardadvancing the first immigration overhaul in a generation that would affect the nation's 11 million unauthorized immigrants, all U.S. employers and future legal immigrants.
    A procedural vote to begin formal debate on the bill was approved 82-15 on a bipartisan vote. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., both voted to advance the bill despite lingering resistance from some elements of both parties.
    "There are 11 million reasons to pass common-sense immigration reform that mends our broken system — 11 million stories of heartbreak and suffering that should motivate Congress to act," Reid said.
    Previous attempts to pass an overhaul of immigration laws have not gotten this far.
    The last time a large-scale immigration bill advanced this far was 2007, when the Senate debated a similar bill but couldn't get past procedural road blocks. The bill ultimately did not receive an up-or-down vote.
    The last successful major bill was in 1986, when President Reagan signed an immigration law that legalized 3 million people yet did not halt illegal crossings as proposed — a fact that critics have been raising in an attempt to block this latest measure.
    McConnell cautioned that his support to begin debate does not guarantee he will vote for the bill on final passage, which is expected before July 4. McConnell, along with many conservative Republicans, are seeking changes to the bill to strengthen border security provisions and make it tougher for the 11 million people living here illegally to receive government benefits.
    "The Gang of Eight has done its work. Now it's time for the Gang of 100 to do its work — for the entire Senate to have its say on this issue, and see if we can do something to improve the status quo," McConnell said.
    The Gang of Eight is a group of eight senators — four Republican and four Democrats — who worked on the original version of the bill.
    The bill would allow most of the nation's 11 million unauthorized immigrants to apply for U.S. citizenship within 13 years, add $6.5 billion to secure the nation's southwest border with Mexico, require all U.S. business owners to check the immigration status of new hires and revamps the legal immigration system to bring in more high-tech and lower-skilled workers on short-term visas.
    To qualify for citizenship, immigrants would be placed in temporary legal status for at least 10 years, pass a criminal background check, learn English, pay taxes, fees and at least $2,000 in fines.
    President Obama said Tuesday that the bill is the "best chance we've had in years" to fix the nation's broken immigration system.
    "If you're serious about actually fixing the system, then this is the vehicle to do it," Obama said while surrounded by immigrants from across the country at the White House. "This bill isn't perfect. No one is going to everything that they want. But this is a bill that's largely consistent with the principles that I ... had laid out for common-sense reform."
    Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., called the bill a "once-in-a-generation opportunity we must embrace." Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., even delivered his entire speech on the Senate floor in Spanish, ending it by saying, "It's time we pass a comprehensive immigration reform."
    The bill still faces hurdles. Critics say it does not account for the massive expense of legalizing 11 million people and fails to properly secure the border with Mexico, guaranteeing that people will continue to enter the United States illegally.
    Even Gang of Eight member Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has spent the past several weeks voicing concerns over the bill, saying he can't vote for it until substantial changes are made.
    He is concerned that unauthorized immigrants only have to learn English to apply for U.S. citizenship and that the border security measures are not strong enough. On Tuesday. he filed an amendment to require unauthorized immigrants to learn English earlier, when they apply for their green cards.
    His office distributed a memo to colleagues highlighting other areas where the bill can be improved, and he is meeting with GOP senators to craft another amendment to seal the border.
    "Border security is not an anti-immigrant measure," Rubio said Tuesday on the Senate floor. "I refuse to accept the idea that the most powerful nation on Earth, the nation that put a man on the moon, is incapable of securing its own border."
    Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a critical voice as the Senate's Republican whip and a border-state senator, has indicated he will file an amendment to require a secured border before anyone can apply for citizenship. Under the bill, the Department of Homeland Security is given goals: 100% of the border must be monitored, and 90% of people trying to cross it must be stopped.
    Cornyn's amendment would make those goals a requirement that must be met before anyone can apply for citizenship.
    Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who has strong Tea Party following, wants to take border security another step further, requiring Congress to certify the border as secure each year before people can apply for citizenship.
    Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., will file amendments to limit the government benefits unauthorized immigrants can receive. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has indicated that he could support the bill, but only if a series of amendments is passed, including one to force more unauthorized immigrants to pay all the back taxes they owe.
    Things will only get more difficult in the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives.
    A bipartisan group of lawmakers continue to work on a competing legislative framework for a broad overhaul, but suffered a setback last week when one of the eight lawmakers in the group, Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, quit the talks over his opposition to allowing undocumented immigrants to receive government-funded health care while in transition to legal status.

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/06/11/senate-begins-immigration-debate/2411509/
    NO AMNESTY

    Don't reward the criminal actions of millions of illegal aliens by giving them citizenship.


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    Added to Homepage with amended title--

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