Thread: Senate avoids votes on amendments to end Birthright Citizenship and more

NEWSLETTER	WEEK of MAR 27
	THIS ISSUE: Senate avoids votes on amendments to end Birthright Citizenship and more, but approves expanding expedited removal to deal with border surges

On Thursday, Senators pushed for votes on hundreds of amendments to the Senate Budget Resolution, including dozens of immigration amendments. But only 35 came to the floor for a vote before lawmakers decided to withdraw all remaining amendments and end debate, so they could start their spring vacations. Only one of the 35 was about immigration.

We're extremely disappointed that there weren't votes on Birthright Citizenship, the defunding of Obama's amnesties, income tax credits for illegal aliens, and more.

However, we did walk away with one victory, but only after Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) changed his amendment to address our concerns that had caused us to urge a NO vote.

Sen. McCain's original amendment called for the expedited removal of unaccompanied minors from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Those three countries were the source of last summer's unprecedented border surge along the U.S.-Mexico border. (We liked that.) But it also included a provision that would allow for the creation of in-country processing of "refugees" in those three countries.

NumbersUSA pointed out to Senators that the Central American migrants are not fleeing government persecution, and so do not qualify as refugees, but are instead seeking the benefits of the President's rewriting of our immigration laws. We notified Senators on Wednesday that we opposed McCain's amendment for this reason and organized a Social Media campaign against it on Thursday night.

Upon learning of our opposition, as well as Sen. Jeff Sessions' opposition, Sen. McCain late last night removed the in-country processing language, hoping for our support. We did change our position, urged a YES vote, and the amendment passed 58-to-42.

Not only did every Senate Republican support the amendment for expedited removal, but three Democrats and one Independent also voted YES -- Sens. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Angus King of Maine, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Claire McCaskill of Missouri.
Since the amendment was part of a Budget Resolution, it is non-binding and doesn't force a change in the current policy that allows unaccompanied minors from those three countries to be treated differently than those from Mexico or Canada. If the provision, however, remains in the budget resolution that's eventually approved by both chambers of Congress, it allows appropriators later to set spending levels for the 2016 fiscal year that call for the expedited removal of illegal aliens from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. In other words, this was one of those first-step victories.

For a list of amendments that were offered that NumbersUSA took a position on, click here.

www.numberusa.org

We have to take what we can get and just keep trying.
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That's something at least, but also it should be mentioned that in not hearing debate or voting on the others means the Senate also did not vote on Orrin Hatch's amendment to raise the H1B cap which he introduced as an amendment to the Budget Resolution. I think the goal of this Budget Resolution was to balance the budget in 10 or less years and defund Obama Care.