Posted on 05/22/2007 3:41:56 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - The Senate turned back an early attack on the broad immigration overhaul Tuesday, keeping alive a temporary worker provision that could bring in as many as 600,000 foreign laborers each year.
Senators voted 64-31 to reject a proposal offered by Sen. Byron Dorgan (news, bio, voting record), D-N.D., and supported by some labor unions to delete the program, which is one of the measure's key elements.
The vote was the first big test for the improbable coalition that wrote the measure and is struggling to keep the fragile deal from unraveling under pressure from across the political spectrum.
The bill still faces myriad assaults, including further Democratic attempts to limit or alter the temporary worker program, which would bring in foreign employees on two-year visas.
The bill would also toughen border security, give quick legal status to the estimated 12 million immigrants in the country unlawfully and create a new workplace verification system to bar undocumented workers from getting jobs.
It would create a point system for future immigration applicants that would place less emphasis on family connections and more on education and skills in demand by U.S. businesses.
Republicans were considering efforts to strengthen the bill's security measures and make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to get on the path to citizenship. Democrats were eyeing changes that would ensure more visas would be available for family members of permanent residents or U.S. citizens.
Conservatives, liberals and centrists who worked out the White House-backed deal are struggling to keep the bill intact while giving Democrats and Republicans who harbor grave concerns about it opportunities to make revisions.
Coalition members meet each day to decide which proposed changes are deal-breakers to what they call their "grand bargain." Dorgan's was considered one such poison pill.
The temporary worker plan has come under attack from several fronts. It would allow most of the workers — largely unskilled, nonagricultural workers in areas such as construction, landscaping and meatpacking — to stay for up to three two-year stints, provided they left the United States for a year between each stay.
Many labor unions say that would depress wages and create a class of workers with no job rights. Business groups call the leave-and-return element unworkable. Hispanic advocacy organizations and religious groups say it unfairly denies workers the chance to stay in the U.S. and ultimately gain citizenship.
"It is just a fiction that these are jobs Americans aren't willing to do," Dorgan said. "The main reason that big corporations want a guest worker program is that it will drive down U.S. wages."
Dorgan's was just one of a host of modifications senators are seeking to the broad immigration plan, a measure that evokes strong emotions among the public. Aware of the potent crosscurrents on the issue, leaders have abandoned an effort to speed the measure through the Senate this week, and now plan a final vote in June.
Democrats and Republicans are to take turns offering amendments, a process expected to last all week and resume after next week's Memorial Day recess.
"There's good and bad in this," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record), D-Nev., said of the bill. "That's what amending the legislation is all about — trying to improve it."
Sen. Jeff Bingaman (news, bio, voting record), D-N.M., plans to offer an amendment to slash the number of annual visas available for temporary workers to 200,000. A similar proposal passed the Senate last year by an overwhelming margin.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record), R-S.C., plans to propose instituting mandatory prison sentences for foreigners caught crossing the border illegally. Sen. James Inhofe (news, bio, voting record), R-Okla., wants to add language to the measure declaring English the country's official language.
Sen. David Vitter (news, bio, voting record), R-La., announced he will seek to kill the legalization provisions altogether, calling them "amnesty, plain and simple."
“Sen. David Vitter (news, bio, voting record), R-La., announced he will seek to kill the legalization provisions altogether, calling them “amnesty, plain and simple.””
Don’t say it unless you mean it, Senator.
ping
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Nuts.
Grouped By Vote Position YEAs -—31
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Biden (D-DE)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Byrd (D-WV)
Casey (D-PA)
Clinton (D-NY)
Coburn (R-OK)
Conrad (D-ND)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-NE)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Vitter (R-LA)
Webb (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
NAYs -—64
Akaka (D-HI)
Alexander (R-TN)
Allard (R-CO)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Craig (R-ID)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Dole (R-NC)
Domenici (R-NM)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Kohl (D-WI)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Lott (R-MS)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McConnell (R-KY)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Nelson (D-FL)
Pryor (D-AR)
Roberts (R-KS)
Salazar (D-CO)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Smith (R-OR)
Snowe (R-ME)
Specter (R-PA)
Stevens (R-AK)
Sununu (R-NH)
Thomas (R-WY)
Thune (R-SD)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (R-VA)
Wyden (D-OR)
Not Voting - 5
Dodd (D-CT)
Johnson (D-SD)
McCain (R-AZ)
Obama (D-IL)
Schumer (D-NY)
Not good
“Sen. David Vitter (news, bio, voting record), R-La., announced he will seek to kill the legalization provisions altogether, calling them “amnesty, plain and simple.””
Don’t say it unless you mean it, Senator.
______________________
See No. 6.
He is only one of two Republicans to vote to throw out the new and additional worker programs.
Not looking good,
The Republican party doesn’t like “amnesty” for illegals, but is fine with 100,000s of new workers every year coming in and depressing wages.
I watched the debate a couple of hours ago. You know you’re in trouble when the lefties are the ones making all the sense.
That ain't gonna work, senators. We voters will remember what you did when it really mattered.
We will not forget how you bastards betrayed the average American with your 'comprehensive immigration reform' farce.
remember the dems what them to be able to come full time legals.
“You know you’re in trouble when the lefties are the ones making all the sense.”
The impression I got was that the Republican Senators who profess to be against this bill in whole, are quite happy to have an arrangement bringing 100,000s of workers per year into the country.
In fact, If Bush announced a new bill dropping amenesty, border improvements, etc. and in its place just a provision to bring in 1,000,000 workers a year, the Republicans would favor it in a heartbeat.
“”Sen. Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record), R-S.C., plans to propose instituting mandatory prison sentences for foreigners caught crossing the border illegally. Sen. James Inhofe (news, bio, voting record), R-Okla., wants to add language to the measure declaring English the country’s official language.””
Inhofe to Graham: “Hey, these provisions will get the yahoos back on our side!! Ha Ha.”
Anyone surprised that the yea’s are basically all dems?
One Republican.
This entire nightmare will cost TRILLIONS!
The alien criminals will bring in tons more not to mention the ones they drop while here
can you say vivalamexico?
The criminal aliens are causing massive amounts of crimes
so I hope you have a way to protect your self and your family!
What is shameful, frightening, and sad, is that I trusted my party to make it right and they failed us miserably!
The bill would also toughen border security,
Based on past history, that is a lie, the Fedgov always says that, then does nothing.
I’m sick of it.
BTW, if they were going to do that, perhaps they should have built more than 2 miles out of the 600 that is required to be built.
After calling all of the Senators possible, I still find that they are arrogant, stupid, and totally out of touch with the American people. These men and women that we have voted to protect our country are snubbing their noses to do what they want without regard as to what “We the People” want. I say “throw all the bums out!”
LOL, it ain't gonna pass. We don't have enough jail space to hold all the trespassers.
And Senator "Brokeback" Lindsey Graham knows it!
sw
There are 300,000,000 Americans already. What need is there for 600,000 extra workers per annum? That’s 0.2 percent.
So do you think the GOP strategy is to oppose the legalization part but keep the workers coming in?
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