Thread: The situation in DC ?

<http://cantwell.senate.gov>





Dear,



Thank you for contacting me with your thoughts regarding immigration
reform. I appreciate hearing from you on this important issue, and
regret the delayed response.



On June 28, 2007 the Senate voted against cloture on the Comprehensive
Immigration Reform Act of 2007 (S. 134 by a vote of 46-53. I voted
for cloture because I firmly believe the Senate should continue working
to deliver comprehensive immigration reform. We need to get tough by
vigorously enforcing the immigration laws on the books right now,
address this problem in a way that is fair to taxpayers and be practical
and return to the rule of law as we deal with the estimated 12 million
undocumented immigrants in the U.S.



Any changes to our national policy on immigration must keep border
security and enforcement a top priority. S.1348 would have authorized
additional border agents and port of entry inspectors, as well as
authorized a virtual fence to allow the border to be patrolled with
unmanned aircraft, cameras, sensors, and other technology, expanding the
reach and effectiveness of our border security personnel. Additional
resources would have been added to enforce employment regulations as
part of a program that would require employers to check Social Security
numbers of new hires against a federal database.



The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act also included a measure that I
sponsored to help northern border communities cover the high cost of
prosecuting federal border crimes, and incorporated legislation to make
it a crime to construct or finance a tunnel across a border leading into
the U.S. Currently, tunnel construction is not a crime, meaning
suspects only face drug conspiracy or illegal immigration charges, and
are not charged for the actual tunnel construction, even though it poses
a serious threat to national security.



Comprehensive immigration policy must also address labor shortages in
certain fields such as agriculture and technology which are hurting
Washington 's economy, and accommodate market demands for foreign labor.
The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act would have created a new
temporary guest worker program, allowing foreign workers to fill vacant
jobs in the U.S. to help meet the needs of businesses and agriculture
producers and ensure the United States remains competitive in this
global economy. S.1348 also included the DREAM Act to give students
serving in the United States Army or pursuing higher education an
opportunity for citizenship.



As you may know, the House of Representatives introduced the STRIVE Act,
its version of the immigration reform legislation on March 22, 2007. If
enacted, this legislation would require the U.S. to work with Mexico to
address border security, and increase border security personnel and
criminal penalties for aliens who break the law. The STRIVE Act has been
referred to House Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees for further
review. Please be assured that I will keep your comments in mind should
I have the opportunity to consider legislation reforming our nation's
immigration policy in the 110th Congress.



Thank you again for contacting me to share your thoughts on this matter.
Finally, you may be interested in signing up for my weekly update for
Washington state residents. Every Monday, I provide a brief outline
about my work in the Senate and issues of importance to Washington
state. If you are interested in subscribing to this update, please
visit my website at http://cantwell.senate.gov. Please do not hesitate
to contact me in the future if I can be of further assistance.




Sincerely,
Maria Cantwell
United States Senator

For future correspondence with my office, please visit my website at
http://cantwell.senate.gov/contact/index.html
<http://cantwell.senate.gov/contact/index.html>

Can someone post us links to the text of this supposed Immigration Enforcement bill? We need to read every part of it and dig in deep.

W

as of 3:44 pm EST, the Library of Congress Thomas register:
The text of S. 2638 has not yet been received from GPO
Bills are generally sent to the Library of Congress from the Government Printing Office a day or two after they are introduced on the floor of the House or Senate. Delays can occur when there are a large number of bills to prepare or when a very large bill has to be printed.

H.R. 2638, as passed by the House on June 15 can be found here:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/C?c ... c1100a7PSj

Kyl's web site!!

CONTACT:
Andrew Wilder or Ryan Patmintra (202) 224-4521

Providing Border Resources
By U.S. Senator Jon Kyl


Though the Senate was unable to reach agreement on a comprehensive immigration bill, Congress can still do a number of things to help secure our borders.

I recently joined with my colleague, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and other Senate Republicans, to add a measure to the Department of Homeland Security funding bill that would provide over $3 billion in additional resources to help secure our borders.

The measure would make funds available for a total of 23,000 Border Patrol agents, four unmanned aerial vehicles, 105 ground-based radar and camera towers, 300 miles of vehicle barriers, and 700 miles of border fencing. It also would bring an end to the “catch-and-releaseâ€

I will do my best to research too. For nearly three weeks it's seemed like this....very confusing and a lot going on, behind closed doors, but little being said. I've strongly felt and agree with those who say their goal right now has been to distract us, confuse us and they would very much like to see us burned out from their constant quiet chatter in the background, while they tip toe around.

I know what we have here about Specter and his disasterous scheme.

I've heard about them working in the House on that Border First Bill.

Senator Chambliss talking about a guest worker program with El Presidente.

Kyle jabbering about something.

It's a MESS!

I don't believe there is any text as of yet on the Immigration Enforcement bill or a bill #. If they do not have one soon they will be going on Aug, recess for a month. we need to watch close this week as I can picture them trying to cram something through so they can go home and tell everyone during their recess the did something wonderful.

They show nothing coming to the floor on this but that really means nothing!

Has anyone figured out EXACTLY what is going on?

I got an email today from Human Events that said Bush is threatening to veto the Enforcement Bill. He can't really do that because this bill is veto-proof because of the number of votes it received. Everything that happened is logged in my post on S2638. We were at it for the entire day last Thursday and there are alot of pages.

Another thing, I got a petition in my email today that said the Senate passed a bill, I think, just in the last few days, to give social security to illegals. The petition is to get Bush to not sign the bill. Did we miss something here? It would've had to go through the house and I don't remember seeing anything about this, nor did I see it come up in the Senate. Did they pull something during the night?