CALL Your GOP. Sen. who opposed amnesty to Resist Pres. Bush's Efforts To Ram Amnesty Through Senate

Your GOP U.S. Senator voted AGAINST the S. 1348 guestworker-amnesty bill last week by voting AGAINST cloture and, before the Memorial Day recess, by voting in favor of an amendment by Senator David Vitter (R-La.) which would have stripped the amnesty provisions from the bill. As a result of cloture being defeated by a vote of 45-50 (see final vote here), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pulled the bill from the Senate floor. Now, however, President Bush has announced that he will head to the Senate this week to pressure GOP Senators to bring the bill back and pass it.

Please call your Republican U.S. Senator to thank them for their recent votes and remind them that President Bush's relentless push for this amnesty-guestworker bill is not winning him any favor in the polls, so your Senator has nothing to gain by changing his/her position. Doing so would only hurt his/her popularity with his/her constituents and be taking personal political risks with constituents and would constitute a personal political risk just to help the President win a misguided personal goal.



BACKGROUND:



On Tuesday, June 12, Pres. Bush will meet personally with Republican Senators on Tuesday to implore them to change their votes from last Thursday and support the Bush/Kennedy "compromise" amnesty/guestworker bill (S. 134 in a possible re-vote.



This will be perhaps the most dangerous moment for us this summer.



The pro-amnesty forces have worked diligently all weekend to overturn the Senate's rejection on the bill last week.



Bush Administration officials are saying that the President will throw all of his influence this week into persuading the 38 GOP Senators who voted against amnesty last week that they were wrong.



Senate Democratic leaders are waiting to see if the President can twist enough Republican arms before deciding whether to bring the S. 1348 amnesty back up for amendments and a final vote.[/b]


Pres. Bush said this weekend that he understands that a lot of Americans and Senators have trouble with a deal that grants amnesty to 12-20 million illegal aliens in exchange for heavy-duty enforcement in the future.



He says he understands that many Americans don't trust that the Federal government will live up to the enforcement end of the bargain because of past failure to do so.



But Pres. Bush says he will go to Capitol Hill Tuesday, look the Republicans in the eye, and assure them that they can trust him to see that all enforcement happens.



There is something terribly strange about his whole argument.



It is as if the President who has refused to enforce most immigration laws the last six years is somebody other than himself.



In addition, Pres. Bush appears to be saying, "You can trust me to enforce the law if you approve the amnesty" but he is suggesting that without passing the amnesty the illegal immigration problem is going to grow far worse because the President won't be enforcing the law!



And he wonders why people don't trust him?



Of course, there are huge overall reasons why S. 1348 should be opposed. But here are a few reasons that even somebody in the Administration might be able to understand (all of them related to the fact that illegal immigration will not be substantially reduced if this bills is passed).



AMNESTY-FIRST BILL: S. 1348 continues to offer legal status at the very beginning, before ANY new enforcement. The much-touted Triggers apply only to requiring enforcement before a new guestworker program and before the illegal aliens apply for a path to citizenship. But they can work and live in the U.S. legally for the rest of their lives, regardless of whether any new enforcement ever happens. TRIGGERS ARE ABOUT MEANS AND NOT ABOUT RESULTS: The enforcement provisions are about certain levels of hiring and certain amounts of facilities. They are not about meeting particular goals about reducing illegal immigration.



FUTURE VISA-OVERSTAYING TO REMAIN EASY: An effort to require a full-scale Check-In/Check-Out system for foreign visitors was defeated by a 42-54 vote. This bill allows tourists, students and temporary workers to overstay their visas without fear of being detected by a federal computerized system.



SANCTUARY CITIES WILL BE ALLOWED TO CONTINUE TO ENCOURAGE ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION: You would think that if anybody were serious about a grand bargain that included an end to future illegal immigration that they would agree to putting an end to sanctuary cities that encourage illegal aliens to settle there without fear of enforcement. But the Senate voted to continue to allow sanctuary cities to operate in the open.



In the end, it will be Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) who will decide whether to bring S. 1348 back up for another vote as early as the week of June 17.



We can be thankful that his enthusiasm for the amnesty has been cooling. His insistence that the bill's supporters needed to pass it or move on to other issues last week came in part from Sen. Reid's concern that the bill may be a political loser for him. A new Rasmussen poll shows that it apparently is.



During the last month of Sen. Reid being a regular public face for the Senate amnesty efforts, his "favorability" rating has dropped from 26% to 19%. And 45% of voters now have an "Unfavorable" view of Sen. Reid.



His ratings are even lower than for Pres. Bush.


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