[PureTrouble]

OK, yesterday there were a lot of posts saying that in the congress version, the democrats added the felony provision as a "poison pill"

Now this article says it was the Republicans.

Can someone here maybe get the sequence of events and the who did what?

[ArmstedFragg]

Here's a partial answer....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/11/AR2006041101643.html

Apparently, the Republicans offered an amendment to reduce the felony to a misdemeanor, and all but 8 Democrats voted against it. They're now claiming that was okay, because they 'weren't helping the bill get passed.'

[george wythe]

Illegal presence in the US is a civil offense.

Republicans proposed HR 4437, an amendment to our current Immigration and Naturazition Act. HR 4437 will make illegal presence in the US a criminal offense, and in the original version, illegal presense is also a felony.

After the White House protested, Sensenbrenner offered an amendment to make illegal presense a misdemeanor instead of a felony.

Democrats believing that Republicans had overreached joined 65 law-and-order Republicans to oppose the Sensenbrenner amendment.

The original language stayed, and the overwhelming Republican caucus voted for the whole bill.

The "illegal presense is a felony" was introduced by Republicans.

Now trying to blame the Democrats is lame. After all, the Democrats want the status quo, which is a civil violation (fine), not jail time. And most illegal aliens don't even know the difference between a felony or a misdemeanor. All they know is that the Republicans want to make them criminals, instead of civil offenders.