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 ...
"Comprehensive reform."
Why don't you throw out another trite banality or utterly worthless euphemism, which masks the issues at stake?
I'm sure you have a million of them.
I could care less whether or not your approach has a chance of being enacted into law.
I repeat, no action is better than shoving this amnesty monstrosity-which over 60% of Americans vehemently oppose-down our collective throat.
Nothing would please me more than for Congress to go into recess right now, and never return.
If there was a bill in your state legislature that would let people invade your home, would you support it?
Contingent, of course, on its ability to garner enough votes...
Thank you, aren't you sweet! ;)
susie
Thanks for the heads up.
You're welcome.
Federal Prisoners? That's likely because they got caught trying to bring drugs over the border.
That statistic ought to please you.
Illegal immigrants are only employable now because they are willing to work off of the books and for below market wages. They are willing to do this because they will starve otherwise.
If they become citizens then they are fully elgible for welfare and subject to other labor laws. They will also demand benefits like health insurance that they are afraid to ask for now since they are illegals.
They will become more costly to employ so businesses will be better off either employing high school dropouts or importing new illegals.
We are then left with 12 million unemployable "citizens" that will increase the welfare load and pad the number of demcoratic voters.
My brother-in-law has been going through the legal pathways to legal citizenship since 1999. He's completely aware of the long, arduous process. His greencard is good for 18 months while he waits for his legal citizenship papers to go through the government bureaucracy.
See my response to JeffAtlanta.
That was incredibly fast, are you parked here???! 8-0
susie
Just multi-tasking, that's all - I never pass by a compliment ; )
We're going to "solve" the problem of the 10-20 million illegal aliens "living underground"-by the way, how precisely are they living underground-by giving the imprimatur of public acceptance-through an act of Congress-to their criminality, and encouraging 20-30 million more aliens to invade this country, in order to replace the ones that have been naturalized?
How exactly does that work?
Border first. anything else next.
Good tagline :)
All these things would result from construction of a barrier? You way overestimate the expense of building it.
That's one possible scenario, but only if the Administration fails to enforce immigration laws once the law is passed.
"Whining and taking our ball home isn't going to help anyone. All the folks who insist on no compromise may kill our chances to fix this problem."
[Amnesty will create 12 million unemployable hispanics -
how is that a solution to anything?]
Exactly. No illegal will be stupid enough to sign onto a guest worker program, because it would make them unemployable. The only thing that works at all is the fence.
Well, I was responding to completely "sealing off the border" and, presumably, deporting 20 million illegal aliens - $6 billion for the actual wall will be chump change compared to a global recession - all of those are therefore possible scenarios.
>A 95% effective barrier, on the other hand, is not
Oh, God, that will go nowhere with this guy.
More and more he is showing the 100% OBL that he is.
At least Dane is open about it. This guy isn't.
He is a waste of bandwidth, other than to make a point to the other posters.
"That's one possible scenario, but only if the Administration fails to enforce immigration laws once the law is passed."
Bwahahahah. That's a joke, right?! They aren't enforcing the current laws.
Yes...it takes a supermajority to go over the budget for an amendment...so I would imagine it would for a whole bill...
BUT, I am not even close to an expert..I am just reporting what I saw on c-span 2.
Perhaps you should ask someone who IS an expert...I am sure there is someone much more knowledgeable, even on this thread.
Drug runners.
According to Senator Kyl, there are approximately 120-thousand in Arizona's detention facilities alone.
They can't be deported. Mexico don't want 'em.
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