Thread: Senate GOP Working on $4.4Billion Border Security Amendment

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,281435,00.html

Senate Republicans Work $4.4 Billion Border Security Amendment
Tuesday, June 12, 2007

WASHINGTON — GOP negotiators of an immigration reform bill are crafting a large border security amendment with mandatory, immediate funding that they hope will assuage concerns of both Republicans and Democrats, FOX News has learned.

The senators are looking at a way to please conservatives who are skeptical Congress will ever fund the bill's border security provisions, as well as keep Democratic negotiators on board in a last ditch effort to save the comprehensive reform bill.

It is a political tightrope fraught with peril, but the members know they need more Republican support to break through the logjam.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a principle author of the amendment with Republican Sens. Jon Kyl and Mel Martinez, says his amendment is designed to be "a confidence builder" to address members' concerns that ramped up border security provisions in the bill won't, in the end, get funded.

Graham hopes to provide $4.4 billion the day the bill is signed, through an estimate in fees and fines in the current immigration bill, to be used to beef up all the border security measures in the bill, with an additional $800 million for further measures, taking from measures put forward last year by New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg who called for more investment in capital infrastructure, like unmanned aerial vehicles and new Coast Guard boats.

Graham said this $4.4 billion would be borrowed from the Treasury and repaid once the fines and fees from the bill are collected, like the $5,000 fine each illegal has to pay for a work visa, called a "Z visa." Graham said it would be better to do it this way, rather than an emergency funding bill, which goes directly to increasing the deficit.

"If you put the money into this bill, it goes a long way toward building confidence," Graham predicted.

Visa overstays will become a crime under the Graham-Kyl-Martinez amendment, and repeat offenders would face mandatory jail time, deportation, and a ban from ever re-entering the U.S. It is unclear what Democratic negotiators like Sen. Edward Kennedy will do. He has not supported this kind of stiff penalty in the past.

Graham would also forever bar employers from participating in the guest worker program if they have violated immigration laws repeatedly.

It is unclear if this approach can work. "They tell me it can be done," Graham said, but he added that his staff is investigating this now.

The negotiators met tonight to lay out amendments Democrats and Republicans must have. The intention is to have a list of "less than 20," according to aides, and this final list would be showed to Majority Leader Harry Reid Wednesday.

Earlier today, President Bush told Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill that failure to adopt a new bill will leave in place an "unacceptable" status quo.

Some of the lawmakers Bush met with "believe that we need to move a comprehensive bill, some don't. I understand that. This is a highly emotional issue," the president said after the meeting.

"We have got to convince the American people that this bill is the best way to enforce our borders. I believe without this bill, it's going to be harder to enforce the border. The status quo is unacceptable. And I want to thank those senators on both sides of the aisle that understand the time is now to move a comprehensive piece of legislation and the White House will stay engaged," Bush said.

Sen. Trent Lott said lawmakers offered several questions and comments to the president, who was anxious to work with the Senate to get the job done.

"The president made it clear to me and to others that he does not want just any bill, won't sign a bad bill, but he thinks this is an issue that needs to be addressed for the benefit of our country,â€

BUT ITS STILL AMNESTY DUMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just another way to try to get the american people to support the bill. First and foremost, the fees and fines will never amount to $4.4B. Most of the fees will be paid for American taxpayers. I guess Congress really does believe the American people are stupid. The bill gives amnesty to criminals while americans who have committed the same crime are in jail. It gives Amnesty to gang members.

A no confidence vote to GOP Senators.

Originally Posted by Beckyal

A no confidence vote to GOP Senators.

Aye