Free Republic

The immigration debacle reflects the sorry state of the U.S. Senate nowadays. Has the world’s greatest deliberative body really fallen so far? Where is the extended debate, a real debate? Where are the Calhouns, the Websters? Where is the respect for the process, our nation, the Founders? The amnesty bill isn’t dead, with President Bush and Senate leaders twisting arms to revive this amnesty monstrosity and force through a “deal.” The bill’s death would be very good for the country! The Bush-Kennedy bill makes mass amnesty its main object. It recklessly increases legal immigration levels and chain migration, though the...

RESOLUTION WHEREAS, any official position of the City of Los Angeles with respect to legislation, rules, regulations or policies proposed to or pending before a local, state or federal governmental body or agency must have first been adopted in the form of a Resolution by the City Council with the concurrence of the Mayor; and WHEREAS, Congress is currently engaged in deliberations for the enactment of comprehensive immigration legislation and the Senate is considering S. 1348, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007; and WHEREAS, during debate before leaving for the Memorial Day recess, the Senate defeated, 48-49, an amendment...

The S.S. GOP is sinking fast, and it looks like Skipper Bush is going down with his ship. That's only fair — after all, he's the one who torpedoed his own ship with the immigration-reform-bill warhead. Not fair is the fact that he's taking his party down with him. I can understand his stubbornness in sticking with this insane program that doesn't do a damned thing to plug the leaking borders that are allowing the United States to be flooded with all manner and shapes of illegal aliens, some of them terrorists who want to kill large numbers of Americans...

Key senators tentatively agreed on a plan to revive a stalled immigration bill on Thursday, aided by President Bush's support for a quick $4.4 billion aimed at "securing our borders and enforcing our laws at the work site." Officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said Republican and Democratic supporters of the bill were presenting their proposal to the Senate's top two leaders, who in turn arranged an early evening meeting to discuss it. Precise details to be presented to Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., were not disclosed. In general, according to officials familiar...

WASHINGTON - President Bush, trying to salvage an immigration overhaul legislation, endorsed a plan Thursday that would lock in money for border security as way to win over conservative lawmakers and a skeptical public. "We're going to show the American people that the promises in this bill will be kept," Bush said in a speech to the Associated Builders and Contractors. Bush got behind a proposal to set aside money collected through fees and penalties for tougher border security and workplace enforcement. Two Republican senators, John Kyl of Arizona and Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record) of South Carolina, have...

WASHINGTON - President Bush, wading deeper into an issue that bitterly divides his party, hopes a personal appeal can help persuade skeptical Republicans to resurrect and pass his immigration bill. Over lunch Tuesday in the Capitol, Bush planned an effort to change enough minds among GOP senators to salvage one of his top domestic priorities. The measure, which legalizes up to 12 million unlawful immigrants and tightens border security, stalled last week in the face of broad Republican opposition. "I think one of the things that we have to do is answer the skeptics, answer the doubters," White House press...

It’s still an open question whether the Senate immigration bill once hailed as a “grand bargain” returns to the Senate floor this week or fades forever from public and political consciousness. But before they try to resurrect this or any other immigration bill, President Bush and the senators who supported this failed effort would be well-advised to heed the opinion of the people who have elected them. A New York Times/CBS poll taken May 18-23 found that 69% of Americans believe that illegal immigrants should be prosecuted and deported; 82% of those surveyed said the federal government should be working...

The undoing of the immigration bill in the Senate this week had many players, but none more effective than angry voters like Monique Thibodeaux, who joined a nationwide campaign to derail it. Mrs. Thibodeaux, an office manager at a towing company here in suburban Detroit, became politically active with a whole new energy. Guided by conservative Internet organizations, she made calls and sent e-mail messages to senators across the country and pushed her friends to do the same. “These people came in the wrong way, so they don’t belong here, period,” Mrs. Thibodeaux, a Republican, said of some 12 million...

President Bush, trying to recover from a stinging setback on immigration, will personally try in a visit to the Capitol next week to revive the embattled plan for legalizing millions of unlawful immigrants. Bush's scheduled lunch on Tuesday with GOP senators is part of a campaign by the White House and allies in both parties to placate or outmaneuver conservative Republicans who blocked the broad immigration measure this week. They said Friday they would try again to reach accord on the number of amendments the dissidents could offer. Opponents of the bill promised to continue fighting all such efforts. Democratic...

.....all the GOP lawmakers who spoke with FOX News were upbeat that the legislation could be revived soon — even within a matter of weeks...... The lawmakers who failed Thursday to win a key vote on the immigration reform bill before the Senate said on Friday that they will continue to push the bill forward and believed they could still find a compromise that would pass. "We are not giving up. We are not giving in," Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., told reporters. He is the chief Democrat at the negotiating table for the immigration bill. "When it is recognized by...

Immigration Bill Fails Crucial Test Vote Email this Story Jun 7, 9:24 PM (ET) US Immigration Documents - View Original Source Historical Docs. Register with Footnote Today. Footnote.com WASHINGTON (AP) - A broad immigration bill to legalize millions of people in the U.S. unlawfully failed a crucial test vote in the Senate Thursday, a stunning setback that could spell its defeat for the year. The vote was 45-50 against limiting debate on the bill, 15 short of the 60 that the bill's supporters needed to prevail. Most Republicans voted to block Democrats' efforts to bring the bill to a final...

Liveblogging the debate on the Senate floor... 8pm Eastern. There's a motion to compel attendance of absent senators. Sergeant-at-arms sent out to look for the absentees. Attempting get a quorum of 51 on the floor. Where are the missing senators? FAIR sent out this alert that may give a clue: FAIR has learned that instead of debating amendments on the floor, Senators this afternoon are hiding behind closed doors, drafting a massive, 400-page amendment that will replace huge chunks of the Bush-Kennedy bill currently being debated. Senate leaders are hoping to use the new substitute amendment to reverse changes made...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A fragile bipartisan compromise that would legalize millions of unlawful immigrants suffered a setback Thursday when it failed a test vote in the Senate, leaving its prospects uncertain. Still, the measure—a top priority for President Bush that's under attack from the right and left—won a brief reprieve when Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he would give it more time before yanking the bill and moving on to other matters. His decision set the stage for yet another procedural vote later Thursday that will measure lawmakers' appetite for a so-called "grand bargain" between liberals and conservatives on...

WASHINGTON, June 1 (UPI) — The U.S. Senate may consider making English the national language, not the common language included in immigration reform legislation. The proposal from Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., would reduce the government services provided in languages other than English, the Washington Times reported Friday. There is not an entitlement for language, other than the English language, to be given to people who want government services, Inhofe told the Times. Many Democrats oppose the measure, which would lift President Bill Clinton's executive order encouraging government services to be delivered in different languages, and its fate as an amendment...

The frail coalition that is shepherding an immigration bill toward final passage in the Senate withstood another attack on its compromise language Wednesday, fighting off a possible “poison pill” amendment from Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). The amendment would have restricted the number of illegal immigrants eligible to remain in the country. It was defeated 51-46 when Republican Sens. Larry Craig (Idaho), Pete Domenici (N.M.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Chuck Hagel (Neb.), Jon Kyl (Ariz.), Richard Lugar (Ind.), Mel Martinez (Fla.), John McCain (Ariz.), Arlen Specter (Pa.) and George Voinovich (Ohio) voted with the majority of Democrats to defeat the language. Instead,...

The debate continues. Reid took the floor to say that he has filed for cloture. Deeply sorry...he'd like to hear more debate...but they have to get back to the other work of the American people, dontcha know.

JEKYLL ISLAND - U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., usually finds friendly audiences in Southeast Georgia. Perhaps none more so than Saturday's annual conference of the National Guard Association of Georgia on Jekyll Island where the nearly 200 officers gave Chambliss standing ovations. But it hasn't been that easy the past couple of weeks. Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., helped forge an agreement on immigration that would let about 8 million illegal immigrants remain in the country. When the news broke, Chambliss said his office was getting 1,000 calls a day, almost all negative, Lindsey Mabry, one of his aides, said...

As Congress debates overhauling our broken immigration system, the bottom line should be this: Will the new system be enforceable and restore respect for our laws? Or will it be unenforceable and lead to even more illegality in the future? This is not a minor matter. America is successful because it is a nation of laws. We now have a situation in which some laws are routinely ignored. If we approve yet another law that promises reform yet again fails to deliver on its promises, our precious heritage as a nation of law will be in serious jeopardy. Our recent...

The vote was close. A cluster of senators from both parties, authors of the immigration bill under debate, hovered over the clerk tallying the votes on an amendment that could bring down their fragile compromise legislation. At 45 to 45, Arizona's Jon Kyl, the lead Republican architect of the bill, put his hand to his chin. At 48 to 45, he crossed his arms and bit his lip. Ken Salazar, the Colorado Democrat who helped write the bill, leaned in. The count stopped: 49 to 48. The amendment had passed, and their bill looked doomed. The bipartisan team sprang into...

Were you aware that if you oppose amnesty for illegal aliens, you “don’t want to do what’s right for America”? President Bush said exactly that about those in opposition to the “immigration reform” bill that he and Teddy Kennedy wish to cram down our throats. Bush made his remarks in a speech to students and instructors at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Ga. In the ultimate act of chutzpah, Bush championed the secretly negotiated bill that rewards millions of lawbreakers, in front of those who have chosen law enforcement as a career. Hardly the example I would...

The Problem of Illegal Immigration - There are anywhere from over 2,700 to 8,000 illegal immigrants arriving in the U.S. every day. (Read more: Overview of Annual Immigration FAIR) - Estimates of the net cost of immigration to taxpayers run from $30 billion to $50 billion a year. (Read more: Questions and Answers About Immigration FAIR) - The United States admits more legal immigrants every year than all the rest of the nations of the world combined. (Read more: Statement of Jan Ting to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon The United States, December 8, 2003 National Commission on...

WASHINGTON - After a group of senators revealed their immigration “bargain” a couple of weeks ago, their promoters set out to sell a deception to the American public by using a lexicon of catch phrases developed over the last two years. While each is designed to spin public perception, the most misleading moniker for this legislative travesty is “comprehensive immigration reform” — a bald euphemism for amnesty. To gain some perspective on the Senate’s amnesty bill, we need we look no further than our nation’s kindergartners. Kindergarten kids quickly develop an acute sense of right and wrong. They learn the...

The Senate should know better, especially after last year. The U.S. Constitution’s “Origination Clause” (Article 1, Section 7) requires that revenue-related bills to originate in the House; therefore, some argued that the back-taxes provision in the Senate's Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 was unconstitutional. The Senate's current immigration deal requires that illegal aliens to pay back taxes before becoming citizens, thereby reopening the door for any member of the House to block the proposed Senate immigration deal by issuing a blue-slip, the color of the paper used for the resolution which formally declares that there has been a violation...

Immigration Sellout, Not Reform The Kennedy-Kyl (K-K) Amnesty bill should be titled An Act to Destroy the Republican Party because it pits President Bush against the majority of the Party that elected him. When Senator Ted Kennedy appeared as the centerpiece of the photo-op announcing it, that told the grassroots all they needed to know about the politics of the deal trumpeted as bipartisan. The Bush Administration has been tone deaf about how offensive are the words comprehensive and compromise. The American people want border security that we can see with our own eyes on television, and they are...

No Alien Left Behind There’s nothing as permanent as temporary immigration status. By Mark Krikorian Our editors here at National Review Online pointed out last week that “It’s Worse Than You Think” with regard to the Senate’s preposterous amnesty bill. They were addressing specifically the fact that the Senate bill would immediately give probationary amnesty to virtually all illegal aliens, and that the much-touted enforcement “triggers” are therefore a sham, since legalization will already have taken place. What’s more, if the benchmarks (more miles of fencing, additional border-patrol agents, etc.) are not met, the probationary status would likely continue indefinitely,...

...in last week's column, I expressed cautious support for the advertised elements of the Senate immigration bill. But the advertising is false. DMN columnist Rod Dreher asked an immigration lawyer what he thought of the bill. His reply: "This bill has no enforcement at all. It says, in effect, that no Y (guest worker) or Z (amnesty) visas will be issued until the following steps are taken. But in the meantime, provisional Y and Z visas will be issued, with exactly the same effects and benefits..." It gets worse. "If an ICE agent apprehends aliens..the agent cannot detain them. Instead,...

Members of the House minority caucuses say they have serious misgivings about the Senate immigration bill and the debate surrounding it, saying that many of the important issues of trade and agricultural policy are being overlooked. "At the end of the day, we have to have a trade policy that lets [Central and South American] goods in and one that's fair to American workers and Mexican small farmers and doesn't undermine them," said Rep. Keith Ellison, Minnesota Democrat. "People have to understand that once we start dumping corn and wheat and everything else into Mexico and we wipe out their...

WASHINGTON, May 25 — Angry calls poured into Senator Jon Kyl’s office this week by the thousands, expressing outrage beyond anything he said he had witnessed in his 20-year political career. The callers were inflamed by Mr. Kyl’s role in shaping the bipartisan immigration compromise announced May 17, which lawmakers continue to debate. “Yes, I have learned some new words from some of my constituents,” Mr. Kyl, an Arizona Republican, said at a news conference on Thursday, drawing titters from those in the room. Mr. Kyl, 65, who garners top ratings from conservative groups every year, is the unlikely lynchpin...

WASHINGTON — Leading Republican senators on both sides of the immigration debate said Sunday that they would work together to modify the bipartisan legislation being considered in the Senate. Initially, some conservative Republicans condemned what has been dubbed the "grand bargain" on immigration that emerged this month. The legislation would increase border security and workplace enforcement of immigration laws, long favored by Republicans, in exchange for delivering on the Democrats' promise to offer legal status to an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants and to create guest worker programs. The compromise, backed by President Bush, won support from conservative Sen. Jon...

S.1348 ~ Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 Bill as filed and currently being debated. [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:S.+1348:]   Also 'Amendments For S.1348' - Items 1 through 108 of 108 as of 11:42 on 28 May 2007 1. S.AMDT.1146 to S.1348 To provide for the protection of unaccompanied alien children, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Sen Feinstein, Dianne [CA] (introduced 5/21/2007)      Cosponsors (3) Latest Major Action: 5/23/2007 Senate amendment agreed to. Status: Amendment SA 1146 agreed to in Senate by Voice Vote. 2. S.AMDT.1148 to S.1348 Purpose will be available when the amendment is proposed for consideration. See Congressional Record for...

The immigration deal the Senate produced last week is far from perfect, and its critics, left and right, make many valid points. But much of the criticism misses the forest for the trees. Left out of the debate: the historic scope and significance of the deal -- its ambition to deliver an immigration system that grapples with globalization and the choices it poses for America. As usual, those yelling "amnesty" are the loudest voices. But they are increasingly out of sync with the public on immigration. Poll after poll in the past year shows 60 to 85 percent of voters...

WASHINGTON – The roiling congressional debate over a plan to legalize undocumented immigrants has rekindled a bitter fight within the Republican Party over the best strategy for restoring the GOP to political dominance – with each side accusing the other of following a course that would destroy the party for decades to come. The clash has grown increasingly intense in recent days, drawing in the most-senior figures in Republican politics. President Bush aimed unusually pointed language at critics, many within his own party, who oppose a more permanent status for illegal immigrants. Two conservative senators were booed by Republican crowds...

WASHINGTON — Trent Lott usually doesn't answer his Senate phone himself, but when angry callers are burning up the lines — as they are over this week's debate about revising the nation's immigration laws — the Republicans' No. 2 Senate leader has picked up to hear what they have to say. A lot of the talk is misinformation, he says. Talk radio and the blogs were blasting the compromise bill, which includes a guest-worker program and a path to legal status for many illegal immigrants, well before the bill's text was ready for senators Tuesday. "We talked for 15 minutes,"...

In politics, it’s safe to say that a piece of legislation drawing fire from both the right and left probably has found middle ground. That’s where Georgia’s two U.S. senators, Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, are trying to set up camp with a bipartisan compromise on immigration reform they helped shape, working with Senate Democrats and the Bush White House. But the two are finding the middle an uncomfortable place. This being Georgia, and Chambliss and Isakson being conservative Republicans, they’ve been subjected to a barrage of criticism for more than a week from a GOP base incensed over what...

For the past 10 days, politicians—including the president—have harangued us with assurances that the shamnesty bill is not amnesty. "Amnesty is a pardon with no penalty," they say. Because the bill would impose a monetary penalty, they insist it is not amnesty. A careful reading of the bill shows that the dollar cost of the fine is far below the value of the benefits that illegals would enjoy after paying it. So one could say that it's not amnesty—it's an investment, and a very good one at that. Let's assume that the bill has passed in its current form. How...

Some people just don't like Mexicans -- or anyone else from south of the border. They think Latinos are freeloaders and welfare cheats who are too lazy to learn English. They think Latinos have too many babies, and that Latino kids will dumb down our schools. They think Latinos are dirty, diseased, indolent and more prone to criminal behavior. They think Latinos are just too different from us ever to become real Americans. No amount of hard, empirical evidence to the contrary, and no amount of reasoned argument or appeals to decency and fairness, will convince this small group of...

Conservative Republicans working to block a compromise immigration bill risk endorsing a "silent amnesty" by insisting on unfeasible mass deportations, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in an interview published on Thursday. In remarks to USA Today, Chertoff also criticized liberal immigrant rights advocates, saying they could prolong the anguish of immigrant families by withholding support for legislation that could give them legal status. Chertoff spoke to the newspaper's editorial board in a preview of a Bush administration media campaign to build support of broad immigration legislation being debated by the U.S. Senate, USA Today said. The compromise bill...

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff smears the citizens he was hired to serve and protect.

# Bill: S 1348 # Vote description: Vitter Amdt. No. 1157; To strike title VI (related to Nonimmigrants in the United States Previously in Unlawful Status). # Vote type: 1/2 (Help) A simple majority of those present and voting is required for approval or passage. # Result: Rejected, 29-66, with 5 not voting. # Date/time: May 24, 2007, 5:59 p.m.

President uses law's escape clause to drop funding for new homeland security force. From 2005: Washington -- The law signed by President Bush less than two months ago to add thousands of border patrol agents along the U.S.-Mexico border has crashed into the reality of Bush's austere federal budget proposal, officials said Tuesday. Officially approved by Bush on Dec. 17 after extensive bickering in Congress, the National Intelligence Reform Act included the requirement to add 10,000 border patrol agents in the five years beginning with 2006. Roughly 80 percent of the agents were to patrol the southern U.S. border from...

Proponents of the immigration bill have been giving the impression that it would quickly beef up the Border Patrol. You need to read no further than page 5 to discover that this impression is false. The bill calls for a gradual increase in hiring: at least 2000 additional agents in fiscal 2007, followed by at least 2,400 additional every fiscal year from 2008 to 2012, subject to the availability of appropriations. Meeting the 2007 mandate would be quite a challenge. Assuming an effective date of September 1, 2007, the Border Patrol would have only a month to hire at least...

Senator Ted Kennedy and the anti-gun zealots who wrote the bill just couldn't resist the temptation to get their hands on our guns. They have included language that GOA has been able to defeat in the past. When Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) introduced these anti-gun provisions in 1998, the GOA grassroots were able to convince seven senator cosponsors to pull their names from Hatch's bill. The current language in the amnesty bill is only slightly different from Hatch's original language almost 10 years ago, but it would essentially do the same thing -- threaten every gun store in America. In...

America's representative government is predicated on open and honest dealings, with public debate and freely flowing information keeping lawmakers accountable to their informed and educated constituents. Unfortunately, the much-discussed "comprehensive immigration reform" legislation, set to come before the Senate for debate, is an example of what is currently wrong with the Washington establishment, rather than what is right, and is demonstrative both of our government's penchant for secrecy and of its terribly misguided legislative priorities.  First, some background. Early last week, the conservative weblog RedState.com broke the news that key Senators from both parties were cloistered in a dark back...

I am reading the text of the new immigration bill. Just as the Patriot Act was a grab bag for every illegal and unconstitutional fantasy on the part of law enforcement, this bill is a grab bag for the globalists, those who wish to destroy the American middle class, and those who want amnesty. The site I am reading from is here. Here are some of the horrible things in the bill. It allows for the elimination of existing backlogs (apparently by fiat), section 501. From 501(b)(2)(A):”(2) VISAS FOR SPOUSES AND CHILDREN- `(A) IN GENERAL- Except as provided in subparagraph...

Let's get to work! Time to uncover the fine print in this monster Comprehensive Invasion Bill

Calendar No. 144, 110th Congress, S. 1348 In the Senate of the United States May 9, 2007 Mr. Reid (for himself, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Menendez, and Mr. Salazar) introduced the following bill which was read the first time May 10, 2007 read the second time and placed on the calendar

For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryMay 18, 2007 Myth/Fact: Ten Key Myths About the Border Security and Immigration Reform Agreement   White House News 1. MYTH: This is amnesty. FACT: Amnesty is the forgiveness of an offense without penalty. This proposal is not amnesty because illegal workers must acknowledge that they broke the law, pay a $1,000 fine, and undergo criminal background checks to obtain a Z visa granting temporary legal status. FACT: To apply for a green card at a date years into the future, Z visa workers must wait in line behind those who applied lawfully, pay...

Around much “celebration,” the U.S. Senate announced on Thursday that a “deal” had been reached on “comprehensive” immigration reform. As I heard the details of the bill, I could feel the collective groans of the conservative movement, just as if we were all punched in the stomach. Why did we work so hard to build Republican majorities? Why did we spend so many hours at phone banks or going door to door? The past six years have seen an erosion of everything we’ve worked for, and now our “leaders” give us immigration “reform.” Following announcement of the deal, President Bush...