Posted on 06/11/2007 7:24:03 PM PDT by justanotherfreeper
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell offered hope Monday for reviving a stalled immigration bill, saying the status quo is “indefensible” while being responsible for creating a “de facto amnesty” for millions of illegal immigrants.
The Kentucky Republican said he thought his Senate Democratic counterpart, Majority Leader Harry Reid, “gave up on the bill too soon” after lengthy Senate debate. McConnell said there’s a “good chance” the Senate will take up the legislation again.
In a conference call with Kentucky reporters, McConnell said the fundamental question is whether the status quo is better than the proposed overhaul.
McConnell acknowledged that Republican senators are divided on the issue.
“I think the status quo is indefensible,” McConnell said. “The status quo is what’s produced 11 or 12 million illegal immigrants in the country with no real plan—a de facto amnesty if you will for those who are already here.”
McConnell said the Senate “ought to make an effort to improve on a status quo that seems to me almost everybody thinks is not good.”
The senator refused to tip his hand about provisions in the legislation.
“This is a big compromise with a lot of different proposals in it,” he said. “I’m not going to specify which ones I like better than others.”
The sweeping bill, which would legalize millions of people in the U.S. unlawfully, suffered a serious setback when it failed a crucial Senate vote last week.
Supporters mustered just 45 votes to limit debate and speed the bill to final passage, 15 short of what was needed on the procedural maneuver. McConnell and Kentucky’s other senator, Republican Jim Bunning, voted against limiting debate, as did most Republicans.
McConnell said Monday that he hoped the Senate would get a chance to vote on more amendments and ultimately the bill’s final passage in the near future.
His comments came as President Bush pledged to try to revive the immigration bill.
The legislation was aimed at tightening borders and offering employers more temporary workers from abroad in addition to providing lawful status to an estimated 12 million illegal aliens and putting many of them on a path toward citizenship.
In a statement late last week, Bunning said the bill was worse than the status quo and would not have stopped the flow of illegal immigrants.
“Not only did the bill provide amnesty to millions of illegal aliens, but it also gave them their own V.I.P. line to citizenship and stuck the taxpayers with the bill for their health care, education, welfare and Social Security,” Bunning said.
He said the bill also failed to secure the border and did not create a workable system for employers to verify they aren’t hiring illegal aliens.
Bunning said the immigration system needs overhauling, but put conditions on his support.
“There must be no amnesty or other rewards for illegal aliens,” he said. “Any bill must stop the flow of new illegal aliens.”
Also, he said a guest worker program must protect American workers, include only legal aliens and ensure that the participants “go home at the end of their stay.”
I wish I knew what it was.
More and more, with the way this is going, it appears that this North American Union thing (a worse "Chinese fire drill" I've never seen), is more than just some utopian's pipe dream set down on paper... Looks like someone is trying to make *that* lunacy, with its complete dissolution of US sovereignty, and large-scale US taxpayer funding of improvements to Mexico's infrastructure, coupled with with severe downturns in US worker's wages, as real as Mount Rushmore...
If it comes to pass, say goodbye to the American experiment, your, and my prosperity, and a say hello to a bleak future to us, and our posterity as serfs to a band of perpetual oligarchs...
the infowarrior
The status quo is: illegal aliens are still ILLEGAL ALIENS!
THAT IS NOT AMNESTY!
(geez these people are morons who think we are as dumb as they are....)
Fred Barnes was on with Hugh Hewitt and told Hugh that Mitch was the one who started the bill going along with teddy. They went behind close doors wrote it and then asked the White House to join in after it was already done.
Exactly. Their persistence in trying to pass this sham bill in the face of enormous public opposition leads me to the same conclusion.
We'll have to do it again, and the dirty-work will probably happen in the Senate first.
The congresscritters are the most vulnerable because their elections happen every two years. Only a third of the senate is up in each two year cycle, so in 2008, those 1/3 in the senate up in 2008 will be vulnerable in their primaries, so they'll probably vote with us - We-the-people.
It's the other 2/3 that can make deals, and hope nobody remembers when their time comes up. That's 66 votes, and they're the ones whos deals must be exposed.
We got our work cut out for us, but we gotta lotta help. The Conservatives showed up, and if Fred steps in soon as a 'enforce-the-law', and a 'build-a-wall' candidate, he could blast the rest out in the Primary, and win BIG in the election!
I'll bet Fred does just that .................... FRegards
Funny title.
It should be: "McConnell warns that Senate will revive immigration bill".
This bill was moronic at its inception, and I feel they tried to get it in under the radar. Therefore, I don’t care what amendments they offer or how they try to repackage it, I want it gone, yesterday. McConell must be stuck on stupid if he thinks this a good bill or of he can’t see the futility in reviving it.
If it passes the Senate, which I greatly doubt, it will never get out of the House. It is going to get ridiculous quickly, and it will get loaded with amendments that will insure its ultimate demise, should it escape the Senate.
We don’t want an immigration bill, we want a deportation bill.
What we actually need is a substitution bill. Our economy would take a terrific deflationary hit if we eliminated the 12-20m illegals who have wormed their way into the system.
Why not take the opportunity to replace them with 12-20m legal immigrants of our choosing? Like from China, India, etc. Why do Mexicans get to determine who will be allowed to immigrate? It's our country and we have the right to self-determination.
Many in your government think you are stupid and don't know how to make the right decision, you know, like 'what's right for America.'
NEVER PUT YOUR NAME ON A BILL WITH KENNEDY....NEVER!
Try ENFORCEMENT!
““The status quo is what’s produced 11 or 12 million illegal immigrants in the country with no real plan-”
Isn’t that because no one is enforcing the current law? We don’t need more laws or Z visas. Defund sanctuary cities and stop hiring illegals. They will leave on their own.
Boy the GOP leadership goes beyond stupid to plain suicidal.
Keep it up guys and you will be able to hold the GOP Senate caucus in a phone booth....”
When it comes to the immigration bill, the GOP is being just plain “Jim Jones Kool-Aid stupid”.
That is my highest category.
True. But the problem was less acute at the time and he regretted it.
DUncan Hunter 2008. He fought tooth and nail against amnesty in 1986, and he authored a far better bill in 1995. Time to revive it.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1848566/posts
They won’t. This is national suicide.
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