Posted on 04/06/2006 8:33:43 AM PDT by STARWISE
WASHINGTON - In a last stab at compromise, Senate Republicans and Democrats reported progress Thursday toward agreement on legislation opening the way to legal status and eventual citizenship for many of the 11 million immigrants now in the U.S. illegally.
"There's been tremendous progress overnight," said Sen. Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record) of Nevada, the Democratic leader, while Majority Leader Bill Frist also expressed optimism that a long-sought compromise might be at hand.
There was no immediate reaction from President Bush, who has made immigration legislation a key priority.
The developments occurred after Frist unveiled a new bill late Wednesday night on the subject as the Senate headed into a test vote on the most sweeping immigration bill in two decades.
In general, the legislation would provide for enhanced border security, regulate the flow of future immigrants into the United States and settle the legal fate of the estimated 11 million men, women and children already in the country.
It was the fate of the illegal immigrant population that proved hardest to legislate, and it has left the Senate on the verge of gridlock for days.
(snip)
Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., as well as other key senators met before the vote to review terms of a proposed compromise.
In general, it would require illegal immigrants who have been in the United States between two years and five years to return to their home country briefly, then re-enter as temporary workers. They could then begin a process of seeking citizenship.
Illegal immigrants here longer than five years would not be required to return home; those in the country less than two years would be required to leave without assurances of returning, and take their place in line with others seeking entry papers.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Apparently, the "work that Americans won't do" includes the profession of conservative punditress.
Oh, the irony.
We are making inroads in both groups - Bush got TWICE the Hispanic vote in 2004 as he did in 2000. Couple generations of that, and you will see the stats completely reversed.
Why on earth would John Conyers and the Democrats be afraid of you? You voted for Michael Peroutka, a loser who is opposed to the War on Terror.
Your answer to illegal immigration is to stop drinking vinegar and start drinking nuclear waste.
Now tonight he has voiced approval of the Senate bill which provides a path to citizenship for illegal aliens.
Will Dubya now make up a new definition of Amnesty to cover his lies?
"I'm against Amnesty. Amnesty is bad. Amnesty is instant citizenship and 100,000 dollars cash for each undocumented worker. And that's wrong. That's why I'm against it. Always have been."
It was Bush's platform for 2 terms. He ran on it. Where do you think Gore's "Lockbox" came from?
Since I just bought a house, I'd rather not take ANY chances with the economy right now, thank you very much ; )
Why is it you have no problem slamming Americans yet praise illegals?
Whats up with that?
JOBS AMERICAN CITIZENS WON'T DO? According the the Pew Hispanic center, and data from 2005 census reports, the largest percentage of those jobs are done by US CITIZENS.
http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=61
About 7.2 million unauthorized migrants were employed in March 2005, accounting for about 4.9% of the civilian labor force. They made up a large share of all workers in a few more detailed occupational categories, including 24% of all workers employed in farming occupations, 17% in cleaning, 14% in construction and 12% in food preparation.
President Bush is the Senate's puppetmaster??? LOL!!
Our economy is expanding in large part due to massive govt. spending on defense, public works, job programs, college tuition, business and farm credits, etc.
That govt spending goes to pay much if not most of the 'salaries' of illegal immigrants, through the trickle down process, I dare say.
Scratch the 12 million illegal aliens and I think we could balance the budget in short order.
Wrong. But it's nice to see you can't hold a coherent argument together.
Dang! It's on the blink again.
Some people around here remember when family farms used to exist. Promoting subsidies to Con Agra and ADM is not a popular conservative position. Just sayin'
By all means, then, drive Farmer Bill out of business.
You and your union buddies have just about succeeded in chasing domestic automakers out of the US. May as well start buying all our produce from Mexico and Latin America as well.
Shall we say it'll be a LMAO moment?
No employers of illegals will even bother checking the cards. Frist's plan does not deal with that. The problem is border security and enforcement. HR 4437 would be more enforceable than what we have now. Frist's bill is just another brand of amnesty. It's not comprimise. It's a thinly-veiled surrender that the pols hope will get us off of their backs because they will sell it as 'reform' or 'comprimise'.
No, it's not false. A group of people, similarly situated, observe and process and make decisions based upon what happened to others in their similar circumstances. Rules/laws are in place to allow for punishment when they're broken. The psychology behind this is two-fold: 1) to allow for punishment, directly, to the law-breaker; and 2) to act as a DETERRENT to others. Role modeling means something. When enforcement of laws/rules are consistently applied to the few who break them, it acts as a deterrent to those who may be THINKING about doing it themselves.
One small virtue to amnesty is that it would create a better database to control present and future immigration. Right now, illegals go to all length to avoid immigration authorities.
And they will CONTINUE to break more laws, whether providing fraudulent documents or going further out of the clutches of INS....what illegal alien within the U.S., who is a criminal element within their native country, would ever out themselves to the INS?
Do you believe the protests will stop at legal status? I garantee you will see more of them in the weeks to come. They protest for legal-status today and voting rights tomorrow and with ANSWER behind these protests who carry anti-Bush posters, I see more votes for democrats than for republicans therefore I see the facilitation of an impeachment if there is one to come.
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