Thread: Sensenbrenner Disses Senate Bill

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Sensenbrenner disses Senate immigration bill


Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) had an immigration press conference this morning in the Rayburn House Office Building before all the commotion broke out over the possibility of a gunshot or gunshots being fired in the building.

If the hubbub over the possible gunshot hadn’t happened, the big Washington story on the cable news shows this morning would have likely been what Sensenbrenner said.

Sensenbrenner had absolutely nothing positive to say about the immigration-reform legislation the Senate passed yesterday. I reported on for the Chicago Tribune.

“You know, I reject the spin that the senators have been putting on their proposal. It is amnesty,” he said.

Backers of the just passed Senate legislation have argued it’s not amnesty because illegal immigrants would have to pay fines and back taxes, learn English, show a lenghty work history, pass a criminal check and get to the back of the line of those seeking citizenship.

But to Sensenbrenner it was all the reincarnation of “Simpson-Mazzolli,” the 1986 law that provided illegal immigrants with amnesty. Sensenbrenner, like many House and Senate Republicans and even some Democrats believe that any arrangement that leads to legal status for immigrants who entered the country illegally would be rewarding lawbreakers and thus an amnesty.

“What I'm saying is is that to avoid the mistake of Simpson-Mazzoli, we've got to do things in the proper order," he said and that means first doing border security and employer enforcement, then later taking up the issue of what to do with the undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

“You know, there's an old phrase that I think many of us have said upon occasion: ‘Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.’ The amnesty provisions in the Senate bill are almost a carbon copy of Simpson-Mazzoli. And if we do have amnesty and we say we're going to enforce the border and we say we're going to enforce employer sanctions and don't do that, then we have repeated the mistake, but with a lot more people coming across the border to come into the United States.

“And that's why things have got to done in the proper order, because shame-on-me time is going to be shame on the Congress and a fraud that will be perpetrated on the people of the United States of America.”

Senators yesterday pinned great hopes on President Bush using the bully pulpit to win over the hard-liners in the House. Specifically, they’re hoping he can get the House to accept a compromise with some sort of guest worker program and a path to legal status for most of the 12 million undocumented workers in the country.

But based on what Sensenbrenner said about visits of Karl Rove, White House deputy chief of staff, with House Republicans, it sounds like the White House could be about to hit a brick wall.

Here’s an extensive excerpt from Sensenbrenner.

The president dispatched Karl Rove, guru in chief up there, to the Republican conference both this week and last week. And I didn't attend either of those conferences, because I didn't want to be accused of putting my colleagues up to asking very pointed questions in a loud voice to the president's chief political adviser.

That's what they did. And they jumped all over Rove, and they said the president is not where the American people are at.

The Senate is also not where the American people are at. And there has not been an issue in a long time that has engaged the American people in the manner that they have been engaged in.

I go back to the Zogby poll that CIS did and released on May 3rd, where they asked people to compare the Senate and the House approaches, and the House approach was favored by those who responded by a 64 to 30 percent margin. So the polling is overwhelming in support of the House border security and employer sanctions bill, rather than what the Senate has done.

And I'd also point out that what the Senate has done, you know, is an entirely reactive -- we've got 12 million people here, so let's legalize them. We've got a lot of employers that have been breaking the law and hiring illegal immigrants. They get amnesty under this bill, too.

There are 66 million new legal immigration visas. I think that's too many. We've taken a million legal immigrants a year, which is the second-highest percentage in the history of our country, as expressed as a total percentage of population, in the last decade. There are 66 million new visas, together with the existing visas, in the next 20 years. And that's in addition to the illegals that would end up being amnestied.

So wherever there's a problem, what the Senate does is legalize them, increase numbers, and give them a pass. The Senate bill has two separate guest worker programs. I don't know why we need to have two guest worker programs. If we need guest workers, we ought to do it the right way. But one should be enough.

It could be that Sensenbrenner is just staking out some tough negotiating positions to give the House greater leverage when its conferees meet with the Senate.

But the dismissive way in which Sensenbrenner talked about the Senate bill and the White House indicates that the House believes it’s position is more politically advantageous than the Senate’s or the president's. And that would suggest that the House doesn't feel like it needs to compromise.

But the dismissive way in which Sensenbrenner talked about the Senate bill and the White House indicates that the House believes it’s position is more politically advantageous than the Senate’s or the president's. And that would suggest that the House doesn't feel like it needs to compromise.
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I hope they don't compromise on one thing!!!!!

Contrary to the DISinformation that the White House - via- Tony Snowjob is putting out, we citizens want the House to stand up for us against the Senate and White House!

So, Help us Obi-wan Sensenbrenner! You're our only Hope!

So, Help us Obi-wan Sensenbrenner! You're our only Hope!

It is so great to come here and see the comments. All of this insanity gets me down and then somebody posts something like this and I laugh out loud and feel better.

added to home page

http://www.alipac.us/article1259.html

Maybe it is paranoia showing it's head again....but I am worried. I wouldn't be surprised if the White House being as dishonest and deceitful as they are will try any underhanded or dirty trick it can to get the House to compromise.......and I mean anything....as they want this amnesty more than anything. I worry about Sensenbrenner, King, Poe, Hayworth, and the others who are pushing the hardest for no amnesty. I'll keep praying for them.

House will not budge on this issue. If anyone else saw the reaction to the bill passed, many of the conservatives are seething in anger, as I am.


In anycase, this bill may just have upped the risk for us here at the freaking border.

And why does the author think that a "hubbub over the possibility of
gunshots in the House Office Building" "happened" to occur at that
very time?

Not to draw attention away from Chairman Sensenbrenner's News
Conference, do you think? It was later reported that the noise came from
a workman using "an air drill" in making a repair in an elevator. You
would think, in such a highly secure area, that every needed repair--
and every needed workman--would be officially scheduled and tightly
monitored throughout. If this was not done on purpose, then our
security has gotten even worse since 9/11!

It is good to see that at least one politician still has some integrity left!! Our work has just begun!!

Originally Posted by LunaLun

Contrary to the DISinformation that the White House - via- Tony Snowjob is putting out, we citizens want the House to stand up for us against the Senate and White House!

So, Help us Obi-wan Sensenbrenner! You're our only Hope!

Yes, sad but true