Posted on 06/26/2007 10:42:05 AM PDT by hardback
The White House is vowing not to choose sides in fights over most amendments to the immigration bill, deferring to the bipartisan group of senators who crafted the legislation.
But administration officials will be out again in force this week to push for the overall bill, the president's top domestic priority, and will wage battle over select provisions.
In a telephone briefing Monday, Deputy Chief of Staff Joel Kaplan said the administration would oppose an amendment by Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., ranking member Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., that would ease requirements for businesses to verify the legal status of employees. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has been leading the administration charge against the amendment. "He obviously feels very strongly that this provision would undermine the effective employer verification system," Kaplan said. "And that's a big concern, so we'll be advising senators to vote against it."
Kaplan predicted the legislation would gain the 60 votes needed to move back onto the floor. Kaplan also suggested displeasure with an amendment by Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., to toughen restrictions on the receipt of Social Security benefits by illegal immigrants.
"The underlying bill takes one approach, which is pretty tough, I think, in generally . . . denying credit to the illegal workers for their contributions to Social Security," Kaplan said. "The Ensign amendment, as I understand it, would tighten that up a little bit further, and we'll work with the members of the Senate to see whether . . . the underlying text or the Ensign amendment strikes the right balance."
But Kaplan said the White House backs an amendment by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to beef up some of the bill's enforcement provisions and eliminate a requirement for completing background checks in 24 hours. Nevertheless, Kaplan argued that removal of the 24-hour provision was unnecessary, saying it would not have resulted in immigrants "getting any kind of a free pass." Kaplan said Bush would make calls to senators only as needed to round up support.
But the president will speak publicly about his support for the bill Tuesday at the White House. The president made calls last week and devoted his Saturday radio address to the issue.
He emphasized a line of argument the White House plans to push broadly this week, suggesting something needs to be done about illegal immigration, and the current bill is the only game in town.
"What the president and his Cabinet secretaries and others are doing is explaining why this bill is necessary and reinforcing the message as to why the status quo is unacceptable, and how the pieces of this legislation fit together to provide a solution to the unacceptable circumstance we face today on our border and within the interior of the country," Kaplan said.
Crook-In-Chief
ping
I think the reason removing the 24-hour rule won’t matter is that the bill is going to say that the applicant can’t be deported while waiting for the result of the background check.
Thus, making it the same as getting the probationary visa, even if it isn’t “assigned” after 24 hours.
All that will be effected is that the illegal immigrant will have to keep working illegally for a while longer until he get’s the z-visa, and since he and his employer didn’t have any trouble with illegal work before, and the employer is getting amnesty for HIRING and paying the illegal (along with any fraud in tax payments or SS payments), they won’t mind keeping up the illegal work for a while longer.
pick this, Asswipes.
I swear he wants to be remembered right along side Nero in the anals of history.
Sorry I voted and contributed to this jerk, who promotes law-breaking over his constitutionally sworn duties.
ENFORCE THE LAW!
Duh! It's your constitutional responsibility that you are failing to execute.
Be the Executive Branch, and ENFORCE THE LAW!
How long does it take for the gov to process passports? This Kaplan guy is a complete liar.
It doesn't matter whether it's 24 hours or not. The truth is, government bureaucrats won't spend more than 5 minutes on each applicant. They will have no way of knowing if the two "documents" submitted are real, or even if the foreigner is using his real name.
What, like the US government is going to send agents to Mexico or Egypt or wherever to inverview the guy's childhood friends? This is the same government that can't even manage to issue passports and allows ridiculous fraud rates in its Earned Income Tax Credit giveaway.
The "background check" is a smokescreen, the government has nothing meaningful to check against and doesn't have the resources to do any real investigating anyway.
Bush and his idiots keep insulting everyone's intelligence by repeating the above.
Someone should tell these morons that some people were RAGING AGAINST the status quo, and still, when the WH and Congress were intentionally asleep at the God damn border switch!
DHS can’t even catch some illegals who apply to be airport workers until well after the fact. What makes them think they can catch any of the illegals with criminal backgrounds?
The status quo would be perfectly acceptable if laws that have already been passed were enforced. So much for the Senate and the President doing their jobs and upholding the oath they took when sworn in.
>>The White House is vowing not to choose sides in fights over most amendments to the immigration bill, <<
Which proves that the president doesn’t care what’s in the bill, as long as he has a bill called “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” on his desk to sign into law. How twisted is that? Jeesh.
i just submitted my resignation to the GOP. I will no longer consider or associate myself with the republican party.
About the only records that could be counted on are arrest and conviction records inside the US. Even if the applicant had a Mexican arrest record as long as your arm, there is no way that their government would provide us that information and risk losing his payments back to Mexico and having to take him back. Foreign records might be somewhat useful for normal immigration where the applicant is asking to enter, but they will never work for the 20 million (+ families) mass amnesty.
Great point. Doesn't matter what's in the bill, cuz it's just the status quo (WHICH HE NURSED FOR 7 YEARS NOW) that's unacceptable.
“...something needs to be done about illegal immigration...” ~ Presidente Bush
Amazing!
Gun Owners of America says that the Baucus amendment is actually a good thing. If I understand the whole thing correctly (which is a big “if”!), the background check is really a means of gun control. GOA says there are aspects of this bill that could put gun shops out of business.
Immigration bill advances in Senate
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer 13 minutes ago
The Senate voted Tuesday to jump-start a stalled immigration measure to legalize millions of unlawful immigrants.
President Bush said the bill offered a “historic opportunity for Congress to act,” and appeared optimistic about its passage by week’s end.
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