Posted on 05/25/2006 2:46:41 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Legislation offering millions of illegal immigrants a chance at U.S. citizenship moved to the brink of Senate passage Thursday, a rare reach across party lines and a triumph for President Bush.
Majority Leader Bill Frist called for swift talks with the House, which has passed its own version, in what loomed as an arduous search for compromise.
Underscoring bipartisan support in the Senate, Frist, R-Tenn., and Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada announced in advance they would support the measure. It was months in the drafting and narrowly survived several brushes with disaster across more than a week of debate.
The legislation calls for stronger border security, a new guest worker program and — most controversially — provisions giving many of the illegal immigrants in the country an eventual chance to become citizens. Another provision would establish a new system to verify the legal status of workers, and punish employers who knowingly hire illegal laborers.
Conservatives attacked the bill to the end after trying unsuccessfully to pick it apart with amendments.
"This bill will not secure our borders," said Sen. Jeff Sessions (news, bio, voting record), R-Ala., one of the most persistent critics.
"This is amnesty," said Sen. David Vitter, R-La., who tried last week to strip out provisions relating to citizenship.
Together, Sessions and Vitter echoed the views of numerous House Republicans, many of whom have vigorously denounced the Senate bill as well as Bush's call for a "comprehensive approach" to the issue.
That portended difficult compromise talks in the shadow of midterm elections, at a time when Bush's poll ratings are low, congressional Republicans are concerned and Democrats are increasingly optimistic about their chances at the polls.
For now, supporters of the Senate bill said they intended to savor their victory. Peppered with questions about the compromise talks ahead, Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., said, "I'm going to celebrate here."
The House bill, which passed on a largely party-line vote last year, is generally limited to border enforcement. It would make all illegal immigrants subject to felony charges and it contains no provision for either a new temporary worker program or citizenship for men, women and children in the country unlawfully.
Frist said compromise talks should begin swiftly.
"I think it is important on this issue with millions of people coming across our borders illegally, not knowing who they are, where they are going or why they are coming," he said.
In contrast to the House measure, the Senate bill would mark the most far-reaching changes in immigration law in two decades. Built on compromise after painstaking compromise, it was designed to appeal to conservatives and others seeking tougher border enforcement; business interests eager for a steady supply of legal, low-wage labor; unions seeking enhanced protections for migrants who often toil in seasonal work the fields and Hispanics who are on the cusp of greater political power and determined to win a change in legal status for millions of illegal immigrants.
That last group — Hispanics — comprises the fastest growing segment of the electorate, and millions made their feelings clear in street demonstrations denouncing the House measure and calling for passage of a broader measure.
Bush played a prominent role in the run-up to passage. An Oval Office speech last week made explicit his support for the Senate's overall approach. A later trip to Arizona was designed to reassure conservatives about his commitment to stanching illegal immigration.
In more than a week of debate, the Senate made a series of changes in the legislation. Still, the key pillars were preserved when opponents failed to knock out the guest worker program or the citizenship provisions. A new program for 1.5 million temporary agricultural workers also survived.
To secure the borders, the measure calls for the hiring of an additional 1,000 new Border Patrol agents this year and 14,000 by 2011, and backs Bush's plan for a short-term deployment of National Guard troops to states along the Mexican Border. The bill calls for new surveillance equipment as well as the construction of 370 miles of triple-layered fencing and 500 miles of vehicle barriers.
The new guest worker program would admit 200,000 individuals a year. Once here, they would be permitted for the first time to petition on their own for a green card that confers legal permanent residency, a provision designed to reduce the potential for exploitation by employers.
A separate new program, a compromise between growers and unions, envisions admission of an estimated 1.5 million immigrant farm workers who may also apply for permanent residency
Even supporters of the bill conceded the three-tiered program related to illegal immigrants was complicated.
Those in the country unlawfully for five years or more would be permitted to remain, continue working and eventually apply for citizenship. They would be required to pay at least $3,250 in fines and fees, settle any back taxes and learn English.
Illegal immigrants in the country for more than two years but less than five would be required to travel to a point of entry before re-entering the United States legally and beginning a lengthy process of seeking citizenship. They would be subject to the same fines, fees and other requirements as the longer-term immigrants.
An immigrant in the country illegally for less than two years would be required to leave with no guarantee of return.
A new electronic system for employee verification is designed to hold employers accountable for hiring decisions. It provides for maximum fines of $20,000 for each worker and possible jail time for repeat offenders.
A separate controversy erupted over a call to make English the national language. Supporters said it would leave all current rights in place. Detractors argued it could undermine an executive order that mandates assistance to individuals who receive services such as health care yet lack proficiency in English.
"I think Frist's total disconnection from the Republican base on this issue alone demonstrates his total incapacity to be President."
Does that mean he'll have the backing of the Weekly Standard for '08?
Of course.
Where do I apply for this tax plan?
Looking on the bright side: when this tax plan is more widely discussed, perhaps 'the people' will ask themselves the same question ... and FINALLY begin to realize how we have been (and are being) scr***d by by these policies.
Our battle is not with the Senators who voted on the "Senate Version" on the bill....the two bill are "oceans" apart.. with the house version being a MUCH BETTER BILL !! our battle is with the Senators who will go to conference with house.. which I just found out will be ALL MEMBERS of the Judiciary Committee and then some additional Senators yet to be named by Reid and Frist !!!...
WE NEED TO LET THESE FOLKS KNOW that we SUPPORT THE HOUSE VERSION !! NOT THE SENATE VERSION !!! now get er done !!
---> for now we can focus our efforts on the JUDICIARY COMMITTEE MEMEBERS !!!
Arlen Specter Orrin G. Hatch Patrick J. Leahy Charles E. Grassley Edward M. Kennedy Jon Kyl Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Mike DeWine Hrbert Kohl Jeff Sessions Dianne Feinstein Lindsey Graham Russell D. Feingold John Cornyn Charles E. Schumer Sam Brownback Richard J. Durbin Tom Coburn
I have written an OPEN LETTER to the conferees and I encouge EVERYONE who cares about this to do the same.... feel free to copy/edit/distribute my letter.. MY OPEN LETTER TO CONFEREES
While I was typing I was thinking about the Declaration of independance and the reasons the founding fathers gave for seperating Britian. The things this elected government, I am not referring to any party, are guilty of are now worse than the reasons the founding fathers. This government needs to be brought to heel and quickly.
At least Byrd voted against a sellout of the USA. Your tirade is far more applicable to those traitors who supported it. Get a hold of yourself.
He's voted on the sellout side plenty of times...he did vote on the right side this once, who knows why?... maybe he thinks it will help him get re-elected with his 20 ACU rating in 2005, which was only 8 in 2004.
Re mental illness: That might apply for Kennedy. Hard to forget his tirades.
I am stunned at how many of our senators are willing to sellout this country. Since a far higher percentage of Democrats supported this sellout, could at least some of the pressure came from Democrats or perhaps Soros?
That's what's coming if the WH chooses to put the screws to its own party.
I was totally for the Alito nomination, are you saying that a GOP Senator from WV would've been against Alito?
The dimensions of the "sellout of the country" may be much broader than just this unwillingness to place serious limits on "undocumented" immigration. In resistance to building a wall, or enforcing the laws already on the books concerning illegal border crossings, the die is already cast on what is to become the North American Union, much on the lines of the European Union. There is also talk of putting the currency of all three countries, the US, Canada and Mexico, into a single currency much like the Euro. A supra-national parliament, and more importantly, a high court to back it up, with the power to overrule the national legislatures of any of the participating nations, and a common passport-citizenship, is also part of the larger agenda.
Viewed in this light, the seeming intransigence of so many of our Senators, to come to compromise with the House version of the immigration bill, turns out to be pressure from the "money people" who are in favor of this larger political union. Believe me, at the individual level, the people of both Mexico and Canada are as much against the idea of a continential union as voters in the US are.
The intellectuals throughout all three countries like the idea, and the power elite seem to be largely on board. This does not make the scheme a good deal, either for the other countries or the US.
But I would POSITIVELY exclude Quebec. They should be in the European Union anyway.
When illegal aliens have more rights than citizens, you know that our country is no longer our own. Every single conservative has to get out there and vote for conservative Republicans this November as they are the ones who do not support giving illegals social security, free health care, access to our legal system, any sort of amnesty or a "pass" on the use of stolen identities!
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