Thread: Numbers: Amendment would have deleted amnesty from bill

From: Roy Beck, President, NumbersUSA

Date: Thursday 24MAY07 11:45 p.m. EDT


Amendment today would have deleted whole amnesty from bill -- Tell your Senators what you think

Keep track of all upcoming important amendments on the Senate amnesty bill -- and the vote results on each -- by checking regularly on our Vote Day web page.


See Rosemary's calculation of all increases in permanent green cards and guest worker visas that the Kennedy/Bush immigration bill would cause. This is the first complete numerical analysis that anybody has managed to do of the huge and sloppily written S. 1348.

FRIENDS, THEY SHOWED THEIR AMNESTY COLORS TODAY.

NOW YOU KNOW.

AND NOW YOU KNOW HOW TO TALK TO YOUR SENATORS.

The Senate tonight finished four days of amendments and procedural votes on the S. 1348 Kennedy/Bush Comprehensive Amnesty bill. It won't resume debate and final votes until after the Memorial Day week recess.

Sen. Vitter (R-La.) -- as he did a year ago before the Senate passed the S. 2611 amnesty -- offered an amendment today that would have stripped out all provisions to reward nearly all the 12-20 million illegal aliens with permanent legal status.

It lost 29-66.

There actually are some reasons to be encouraged by this vote, which I will explain later.


HERE ARE THE HEROES OF THE DAY WHO VOTED 'YES' ON DELETING ANY LANGUAGE THAT WOULD GIVE AMNESTY TO ILLEGAL ALIENS


Alabama: Sessions (R-AL), Yea Shelby (R-AL), Yea
Arkansas: Pryor (D-AR), Yea
Colorado: Allard (R-CO), Yea

Idaho: Crapo (R-ID), Yea
Iowa: Grassley (R-IA), Yea
Kansas: Roberts (R-KS), Yea

Kentucky: Bunning (R-KY), Yea McConnell (R-KY), Yea
Louisiana: Landrieu (D-LA), Yea Vitter (R-LA), Yea
Mississippi: Cochran (R-MS), Yea

Missouri: Bond (R-MO), Yea McCaskill (D-MO), Yea
Montana: Baucus (D-MT), Yea Tester (D-MT), Yea
Nebraska: Nelson (D-NE), Yea

New Hampshire: Sununu (R-NH), Yea
North Carolina: Dole (R-NC), Yea
North Dakota: Dorgan (D-ND), Yea

Oklahoma: Coburn (R-OK), Yea Inhofe (R-OK), Yea
South Carolina: DeMint (R-SC), Yea
South Dakota: Thune (R-SD), Yea

Tennessee: Alexander (R-TN), Yea Corker (R-TN), Yea
West Virginia: Byrd (D-WV), Yea Rockefeller (D-WV), Yea
Wyoming: Enzi (R-WY), Yea

We will be giving you opportunities to reinforce that behavior and try to ensure that each of these Senators ends up voting against the cloture on the final bill in June.

All of us across America thank those of you who live in the above states and who have provided the kind of contact and pressure on your Senators to get that kind of result.

We especially salute those of you in Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, Tennessee and West Virginia because BOTH your Senators voted to kill the amnesty!

Those of you who don't have your state listed above may have a lot of excuses for why your Senators are so willing to reward illegal behavior and shut out non-employed vulnerable American workers from those jobs.

But the fact is that this country faces a disaster unless those of you without your state on the above list turn up the pressure and get at least one of your Senators on the anti-amnesty list.

If seven Senators who voted NO had instead voted YES, the amnesty would have been deleted. If we can hold the above Senators on the final bill, we have a chance to kill the whole bill in June if the rest of you do something about your state's Senators.

It is so very important that we not take these Senators for granted -- that you praise them and also let them know how much you are counting on them to vote against cloture on the final bill in June.

The really big Republican surprise was Sen. McConnell (R-Ky.). As the Republican Senate leader, he has primarily carried water for Pres. Bush and has constantly spoken in the media of the need to get a comprehensive bill through. Nearly everything he has done has indicate that he wants an amnesty to pass. So, we are really puzzled by this vote. Maybe you Kentuckians can tell us what you have been doing. Does this mean that he might vote against the overall bill? We have no indication that he will do so.


WE'RE GAINING AMONG DEMOCRATS


Perhaps the most encouraging thing about this vote was the fact that 9 Democrats joined 20 Republicans.

Last year, only 2 Democrats joined the 31 Republicans who voted to strip the amnesty part of the bill that eventually passed the Senate by died in the House of Representatives.

Here's the superficial view of what may have happened to get 9 Democrats:

Two of them defeated Republicans in November who had voted against the amnesty last May. Both Sen. McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Sen. Tester (D-Mont.) promised in their campaigns they would oppose amnesty, and they actually lived up to that promise today.

You can tell that many Senators believe that you represent a major bloc of voters because 3 of the Democrats who voted for the amnesty last year but voted against it today are up for re-election next year:

Senators Pryor (D-Ark.), Landrieu (D-La.), Baucus (D-Mont.).

And Sen. Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) who was ill last year and missed the vote -- and who has a D+ Career grade on amnesty -- voted to kill the amnesty. He, too, faces re-election next year. Knowing that you have to soon face the voters has a way of focusing these politicians very nicely.

Those of you with other Democratic Senators need to study these Senators to see ways that yours could be more like these -- especially if they are up for re-election this year.

I would think that Democrats should become increasingly comfortable in adopting the people's position on immigration if they were to listen to the eloquence of Sen. Dorgan (D-N.D.) in defending American workers from runaway immigration programs. We will provide you with links to some of his wonderful comments at a later time.


THESE SENATORS ARE NOW ON RECORD AS FAVORING AMNESTY AND REWARDS FOR 12-20 MILLION ILLEGAL ALIENS


If your state is on this list, you have your work cut out for you. Please do not let any of the Senators off the hook. They voted NO on the Vitter amendment.

Alaska: Murkowski (R-AK), Nay Stevens (R-AK), Nay
Arizona: Kyl (R-AZ), Nay McCain (R-AZ), Nay
Arkansas: Lincoln (D-AR), Nay

California: Boxer (D-CA), Nay Feinstein (D-CA), Nay
Colorado: Yea Salazar (D-CO), Nay
Connecticut: Dodd (D-CT), Nay Lieberman (ID-CT), Nay

Delaware: Biden (D-DE), Nay Carper (D-DE), Nay
Florida: Martinez (R-FL), Nay Nelson (D-FL), Nay
Georgia: Chambliss (R-GA), Nay Isakson (R-GA), Nay

Hawaii: Akaka (D-HI), Nay Inouye (D-HI), Nay
Idaho: Craig (R-ID), Nay
Illinois: Durbin (D-IL), Nay Obama (D-IL), Nay

Indiana: Bayh (D-IN), Nay Lugar (R-IN), Nay
Iowa: Harkin (D-IA), Nay
Maine: Collins (R-ME), Nay Snowe (R-ME), Nay

Maryland: Cardin (D-MD), Nay Mikulski (D-MD), Nay
Massachusetts: Kennedy (D-MA), Nay Kerry (D-MA), Nay
Michigan: Levin (D-MI), Nay Stabenow (D-MI), Nay

Minnesota: Coleman (R-MN), Nay Klobuchar (D-MN), Nay
Mississippi: Lott (R-MS), Nay
Nebraska: Hagel (R-NB) Nay

Nevada: Ensign (R-NV), Nay Reid (D-NV), Nay
New Hampshire: Gregg (R-NH), Nay
New Jersey: Lautenberg (D-NJ), Nay Menendez (D-NJ), Nay

New Mexico: Bingaman (D-NM), Nay Domenici (R-NM), Nay
New York: Clinton (D-NY), Nay
North Carolina: Burr (R-NC), Nay

North Dakota: Conrad (D-ND), Nay
Ohio: Brown (D-OH), Nay Voinovich (R-OH), Nay
Oregon: Smith (R-OR), Nay Wyden (D-OR), Nay

Pennsylvania: Casey (D-PA), Nay Specter (R-PA), Nay
Rhode Island: Reed (D-RI), Nay Whitehouse (D-RI), Nay
South Carolina: Graham (R-SC), Nay

Texas: Cornyn (R-TX), Nay Hutchison (R-TX), Nay
Utah: Bennett (R-UT), Nay
Vermont: Leahy (D-VT), Nay Sanders (I-VT), Nay

Virginia: Warner (R-VA), Nay Webb (D-VA), Nay
Washington: Cantwell (D-WA), Nay Murray (D-WA), Nay

I am hopeful that at least seven of these and maybe more actually have a problem with amnesties and voted against the Vitter amendment because of some kind of strategic thinking, and that they ultimately will find it too difficult to vote for this bill.

The reason I say only seven might be needed even though we lost by a 2-1 margin is that on the final cloture vote, the pro-amnesty people have to get 60 votes to pass it.

But with these 66 voting so clearly today in favor of keeping this gigantic amnesty, you have to approach them as if they are serious about following through and supporting the final bill.

Texans, what in the world are your two Republican Senators doing? My understanding is that virtually the entire Republican delegation in the U.S. House is seething over this bill. I have heard Republican Congressmen themselves say that Sen. Cornyn is a defeated man in next year's elections if he votes for this amnesty bill. Well, he voted for amnesty today.

Georgians, you made us proud with your state legislature, but your two Republican Senators are an embarrassment after being so strongly anti-amnesty last year. The amnesty they protected today is far larger than the one they opposed last year.

Virginians, Sen. Webb (D-Va.) was elected to replace Sen. Allen last fall in part because he indicated a strong opposition to illegal immigration. He gave you something very different today with his support for amnesty rewards. Doesn't sound like the tough, security-minded Jim Webb that Virginians thought they were electing.

And you Michigan citizens have a right to be concerned. Last year while facing election, Sen. Stabenow (D-Mich.) was one of four Democrats who voted against the final amnesty bill. But today, she stood with the most open-borders of Senators to protect the amnesty.

Special disappointments on this vote are Sen. Burr (R-N.C.) and Sen. Ensign (R-Utah) who had been reliable votes in the past against illegal immigration.

These Senators didn't vote:
Brownback (R-Kan.)
Hatch (R-Utah)
Johnson (D-S.D.)
Schumer (D-N.Y.)
Thomas (R-Wyo.)

I'm afraid that five of those would have voted for the amnesty had they been here.

Unless those of you with these pro-illegal Senators increase the pressure over their time back in the home state, we're going to be stuck with 35-40 million more permanent green card holders over the next 20 years.

SINCERELY,



www.numbersusa.com

Because he knows that I, along with hundreds of thousands of other Kansans, are 100% against providing amnesty.

I will keep up my efforts here to bring him back into the fold of law and order, right and wrong.

I will continue also!!