Posted on 09/29/2006 9:06:48 PM PDT by mdittmar
Republicans will go into the elections with a message that they've made great strides fighting illegal immigration, including authorizing a fence along one-third of the U.S.-Mexico border and making a $1.2 billion down payment on it.
Among its final tasks before leaving to campaign, the Senate on Friday night passed and sent to President Bush a bill authorizing 700 new miles of fencing on the southern border. No one knows how much it will cost, but a separate bill also on the way to the White House makes a $1.2 billion down payment on it. A 14-mile segment of fence under construction in San Diego is costing $126.5 million.
The fence bill was passed by the House two weeks ago. The Senate vote on it Friday night was 80-19.
In addition to money for starting work on the fence, a homeland security bill passed Friday by the House and later by the Senate includes $380 million to hire 1,500 more Border Patrol agents and money to build detention facilities to hold 6,700 more illegal immigrants until they can be deported.
"We have made giant steps in terms of our ability to control illegal immigration," House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters.
The fence bill became House Republicans' immigration focus in September after they abandoned President Bush's call to bring millions of illegal immigrants into the American mainstream.
In addition to the money in the Homeland Security spending bill, Boehner cited Bush's deployment of the National Guard on the border and more frequent arrests of illegal immigrants at work sites.
"The perception that has been painted mistakenly is that the United States government, our Congress is not delivering to the American people on a huge problem that's out there," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. "We're active."
Democrats and immigration advocates say Republicans can hardly claim victory.
House Republicans failed to win measures for deporting immigrant gang members and empowering local police to enforce immigration laws. Their biggest obstacle turned out to be another Republican, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the border security achievements trumpeted by Republicans don't measure up to the more comprehensive reforms her party backed. What the GOP calls achievements fall "very far short of what Democrats have proposed over and over and over again," she said.
After a debate that stretched over three months, the Senate in May passed a sweeping immigration bill that combined tougher border enforcement measures with new guest worker programs and a plan to give millions of illegal immigrants already in the U.S. a shot at citizenship.
Despite Bush's ringing endorsement of the measure, the House would have no part of it, sticking to the bill it passed five months earlier that would treat illegal immigrants and people who offer them aid as felons.
Rather than negotiate a compromise with the Senate, Republican leaders plucked out many provisions of the House bill for new votes in both the House and Senate over the past two weeks.
"It's been two years of high visibility, high volume debate in terms of which way to go in the immigration system," said Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum. In the end the debate ended in a tie, he said.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (news, bio, voting record), D-Mass., called the fence "a bumper sticker solution for a complex problem."
"It's a feel-good plan that will have little effect in the real world," he said. "We all know what this is about. It may be good politics, but it's bad immigration policy. That's not what Americans want."
Sens. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., made a 11th-hour appeal to colleagues to include in the fence bill a measure to help the agriculture industry, which relies heavily on undocumented workers.
Those workers have become harder to find because of increased border enforcement and availability of jobs for the workers in construction and other industries, they said. Consumers ultimately will pay the price for that at the grocery store, they added.
"Pickers are few and the growers blame Congress," Craig said, reading a news headline. "The growers ought to blame Congress. They ought to blame a government that has been dysfunctional in an area of immigration that has been problem for decades."
It may be complex to drunken Ted but it's really very simple: Don't reward illegal behavior, sanction employers & landlords, arrest and hold illegals, and build the fence.
Anybody watch this cw network? What do you think?
770/14=50
50*126.5=6.325 billion
As opposed to "bumper sticker non-solutions" to non-problems, like "100,000 Cops" or "the Assault Weapons Ban".
This is a major rip-off!
Ping!
Teddy Wheels knows as much about the real world as I can read cuneiform.
"A 14-mile segment of fence under construction in San Diego is costing $126.5 million."
This is a major rip-off!"
Particularly when illegals can easily go around the fence by using the Pacific Ocean's shoreline. Small fishing boats are plentiful.
Has Bush's attitude changed? That is the real question.
I posted this on another thread; it fits here too:
I'll tell you what, IMO, has taken place. A deal has been cut with the House/Senate and the White House. Bush will not veto this bill, as the deal is when Congress reconvenes, following the November elections, the Pubs, assuming they maintain control in the House and Senate, will then fashion a "temporary visitor's program" and pass the bill which Bush will, of course, then sign. They may even try to go for an amnesty measure, as no one at that point will have to worry about re-election for two years in the House, and only some in the Senate will have to worry. Thus, Bush will shortly get what he wants, and if the Dems win in the mid-term election, Bush will get ALL that he wants on immigration, as the Dems will stall funding or de-fund the 700 mile fence, will pass an amnesty bill, along with a guest worker bill, and will leave the floodgates on the border open (got to get more Dem voters, you know, legal or illegal). Either way, a win win for Bush, and he knows it. The truth of the matter.
"They can start by taking one mile of it and putting it around the New York Times building."
And they then can put one mile of fencing around the U.N., so none of the inmates can escape the assylum.
nope, the fence includes surveliance
Nice you have feelings. Perhaps you should have the Doctor up the dosage on your anti paronia medication.
No, what matter is if he Always Angry are finally going to start actually paying attention to what is really going on in DC or just continue screaming their bile at anyone who doesn't support their "Shoot on Sight" dogma.
The President's plan has been clear from the start for anyone who EVER bothered to listen.
1. Enforce the Border.
2. Deal with the Illegals we have.
3. Guest Worker.
Frankly I think the President should of just focused on 1 but that just my opinion. Maybe if the Always Angry would shut up ONE time and find out what is going on they would realize how dumb this "DO ONLY WHAT I WANT THE SECOND I WANT IT" ranting has been.
I love this. The US House GOP are the ONLY people in Washington actually DOING something. So what do the Always Angry do? Whine because they aren't doing anything. Then Whine because they are doing something.
Fact of the matter is there is NO reason for anyone in DC to pay attention to Alway Angry Fringes on anything. All the Fringers are ever going to do is bitch about everything thing. It a waste of time listening to them on anything. The topic changes, the bitching remains the same.
Contrary to what Americans see on TV, NOT ever problem can be fixed in 30 mins with breaks for commercials. NOTHING in life is ever fixed at one fell swoop. Change is always incremental. This "Do ONLY what I want the second I want it" mindset of the 100%ers is complete divorced from reality.
The takeaway message is that the fence bill passed in the "divided" Senate by 80-19. 80-19! That's not divided, not on this issue. Their imperial highnesses, the US Senators of both parties, have finally clued in to the fact that no border security = unemployment, their unemployment. A huge win for the forces advocating border security.
What we need to do now is hold their feet the fire.
I think he's gradually realized that much of the GOP base is incensed about our unguarded, porous border and the invasion of 12 million illegals into our country. But I see no evidence that he appreciates how serious this problem is. It's been 5 years since 9/11 and, even before that, as governor of Texas he was aware of the massive influx of illegals for at least the past 10 years.
IMO, he would rather let the problem fester and worsen, than disaffect even one Latino voter. OTOH, he knows the base has become "restive," so he and the GOP have applied this latest band-aid to the massive hemorrhage at our border -- a band-aid, BTW, that the democrats have no trouble supporting since it will do little or nothing to effectively address the problem.
That's true. But (as I see it) there's only one way to do that, only one way to get through to them about the border. And, unfortunately, that would be to hand them a defeat this November. Lots of posters will flame me for this statement, but somebody has got to say it. The GOP has forgotten the lessons of 1992 and 1996 and they are once again taking their base for granted. The truth is that they couldn't care less about illegal immigration and will only stop it when they have to fight their way back into office. It's a terrible position to put us in but, IMO, this is the reality. I will leave it to others to pop champagne corks over this meaningless border bill that has just passed.
This vote proves how seriously this issue cuts, politically. Barbara Boxer, not up for re-election, voted FOR the measure.
She and Feinstein and Craig argued for agriculture worker considerations (which are ultimately needed) but voted for the measure.
She does NOT want to later face a Republican who calls her soft on immigration, even with California demographics.
We are winning. Gradually.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.