Posted on 05/25/2006 10:39:02 AM PDT by Altair333
According to the Senate website, the Bingaman amendment which caps the TOTAL number of VISAs for permanent residents, INCLUDING family members at 650,000 in any fiscal year PASSED 51-47.
That might sound like a lot, but believe me, Ted Kennedy is heartbroken over this one. This puts some limit (which can always be lowered) on the infinite use of family reunification VISAs in any given year.
This further makes the possible "worst case scenario" in immigration legislation less dire.
Here's a story about Bingaman's bill:
http://www.abqjournal.com/abqnews/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=972&Itemid=2
I honestly had never heard of this Democratic senator, but he's had the two most important amendments pass- the one limiting guest workers to 200,000 hard cap and now this one.
Bo Bingaman!
A little GOOD news for a change.. Thanks..
That's probably the first decent ammendment that Bingamen has ever come up with.
As a New Mexican, I about fell out of my chair when he showed the faintest glimmer of sense!
Roger that.
He still doesn't open my e-mail.
"That's probably the first decent ammendment that Bingamen has ever come up with."
Not true- he proposed the two biggies- the 200,000 hard cap on guest workers and now the hard cap on total visas. Both passed.
Sessions and Bingaman have done the most of any two Senators to limit the damage this bill does.
ping
Written by Bruce Daniels - ABQnewsSeeker
Thursday, 25 May 2006
N.M. Democrat becoming a hero to immigration skeptics.
Following up on his successful amendment early in the U.S. Senate's debate on immigration reform and border security, New Mexico Democratic Sen. Jeff Bingaman was at it again this morning, offering an amendment that would cap the number of visas for legal permanent residents at 650,000.
Bingaman earlier had gotten the Senate to overwhelmingly approve an amendment that cut the number of new legal guest workers from 350,000 to 200,000 a year, winning some praise from folks like the conservative Heritage Foundation, which said Bingaman had managed to reduce the more than 100 million expected new legal immigrants over the next 20 years to a mere 66 million. (Go to the ABQNews Seeker archive for our Monday post titled "Immigration Showdown.")
Today, tough-on-immigration Michelle Malkin reports on her Web site, Bingaman engaged Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass, and John McCain, R-Ariz. -- architects of the original "comprehensive" reform bill before the Senate -- in what she calls "the most important debate of the year" -- i.e. "who do we let into this country and how many?"
The current Senate immigration bill "essentially obliterates the current employer-based green card cap of 140,000," Malkin reports. The Bingaman amendment would limit the total number of aliens, including spouses and children (which the current law doesn't do), to be granted employment-based legal permanent resident status to 650,000 during any fiscal year. (11:15am UPDATE: According to the U.S. Senate Web site, the amendment passed, but no vote totals were given.)
And though Bingaman's amendment would put the cap at four times the current rate, "both McCain and Kennedy are responding hysterically as if Bingaman has proposed some human rights crackdown on the world," Malkin says.
When McCain accused Bingaman of "discriminating against" immigrants with his amendment, Bingaman pointed out that the original McCain-Kennedy bill itself had a 290,000 cap, Malkin reported.
The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (S.2611) is scheduled for a final vote some time today, and observers agree it will almost certainly pass, putting the Senate at odds with an enforcement-only bill passed last December by the U.S. House.
We should freepmail a huge THANK YOU to Sessions and Bingaman!!
Ok. So he has two. After how many years in the Senate?
The "Love" from the American people might be slowly sinking in.
Here is another border plan that will also address other problems:
1. Dig a moat the length of the Mexican border.
2. Take that dirt and build up the New Orleans levies.
3. Fill the moat with water and then transplant a few hundred thousand alligators from Florida. This will relieve the alligator over-population problem.
a democrat comes to the rescue let the wailing begin
This is from Michelle Malkin's website- it was up to the arch-RINO McCain.
Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) on his incredibly modest proposal to put a cap on the number of legal work visas offered under S.2611: "We need to be somewhat prudent in what we're doing."
John McCain (R-AZ) angrily denounces Bingaman ammendment: "He wants us to be like other countries, maybe France, maybe Germany [...] This is against family, this is against everything that America stands for. [...] Ths is just one of a series of ammendments to restrict people's abilitity to come to this country. [...] I don't want America to be like every other country in the world. [...] Lately, these ammendments have had a tenor and effect, and I don't think it's good for this country and I don't think it's healthy for America."
Bingaman responds: "His [McCain's] proposal had a cap of 290,000. Now, I'm proposing a proposal that's more than twice the proposal that his bill had [...] I'm saying legal permanent residents should not exceed 600,000 per year. [...] So I don't think this is unfair. It's more than twice what he and Senator Kennedy proposed."
- end quote -
But before you guys get too hard on McCain, remember this- he met with Jerry Falwell and gave a speech at Liberty University. And that's what matters. [/sarcasm]
How pathetic is it that a frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination was hysterically arguing against this bill?
...in the end, will these NEW laws be enforced?
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