Posted on 06/07/2007 1:51:28 AM PDT by Baladas
Just say NO to Amnesty!! Before its too late!!
U.S. Senate switchboard: (202) 224-3121
U.S. House switchboard: (202) 225-3121
White House comments: (202) 456-1111
Find your House Rep.: http://www.house.gov/writerep
Find your US Senators: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
I hope Dorgan’s amendment is enough to kill this thing.
I could care less HOW it dies so long as I see it DEAD, DEAD, DEAD!
clinton can’t even get an amendment passed.
If it fails you just kmow Ried will come out and say “America has spoken!”. (/snort)
Here’s the whole piece.
Immigration Bill in Doubt After Vote
3:28 AM EDT, June 7, 2007
By CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press Writer
http://www.courant.com/news/nationworld/custom/ats-ap_top11jun07,0,5022578.story?coll=hc-nationworld-heds-breaking
WASHINGTON — A fragile compromise that would legalize millions of unlawful immigrants risks coming unraveled after the Senate voted early Thursday to place a five-year limit on a program meant to provide U.S. employers with 200,000 temporary foreign workers annually.
The 49-48 vote came two weeks after the Senate, also by a one-vote margin, rejected the same amendment by Sen. Byron Dorgan. The North Dakota Democrat says immigrants take many jobs Americans could fill.
The reversal dismayed backers of the immigration bill, which is supported by President Bush but loathed by many conservatives. Business interests and their congressional allies were already angry that the temporary worker program had been cut in half from its original 400,000-person-a-year target.
A five-year sunset, they said, could knock the legs from the precarious bipartisan coalition aligned with the White House. The Dorgan amendment “is a tremendous problem, but it’s correctable,” said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa. The coalition will try as early as Thursday to persuade at least one senator to help reverse the outcome yet again, he said.
Until the Dorgan vote was tallied, Specter and other leaders of the so-called “grand bargain” on immigration had enjoyed a fairly good day.
They had turned back a bid to reduce the number of illegal immigrants who could gain lawful status. They also defeated an effort to postpone the bill’s shift to an emphasis on education and skills among visa applicants as opposed to family connections.
And they fended off an amendment, by Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., that would have ended a new point system for those seeking permanent resident “green cards” after five years rather than 14 years.
All three amendments were seen as potentially fatal blows to the bill, which would tighten borders, hike penalties for those who hire illegals and give many of the country’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants a pathway to legal status.
The Senate voted 51-46 to reject a proposal by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, to bar criminals — including those ordered by judges to be deported — from gaining legal status. Democrats siphoned support from Cornyn’s proposal by winning adoption, 66-32, of a rival version that would bar a more limited set of criminals, including certain gang members and sex offenders, from gaining legalization.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., alone among his party’s presidential aspirants in backing the immigration measure, opposed Cornyn’s bid and backed the Democratic alternative offered by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.
Senators also rejected a proposal by Robert Menendez, D-N.J., that would have delayed the bill’s shift in favor of attracting foreign workers with needed skills as opposed to keeping families together. Menendez won 53 votes, seven short of the 60 needed under a Senate procedural rule invoked by his opponents.
Menendez’s proposal would have allowed more than 800,000 people who had applied for permanent legal status by the beginning of 2007 to obtain green cards based purely on their family connections — a preference the bill ends for most relatives who got in line after May 2005.
Meanwhile, Sen. Hillary R. Clinton, D-N.Y., fell short in her bid to remove limits on visas for the spouses and minor children of immigrants with permanent resident status.
While several Cornyn amendments failed, he prevailed on one matter opposed by the grand bargainers. That amendment, adopted 57 to 39, would make it easier to locate and deport illegal immigrants whose visa applications are rejected.
The bill would have barred law enforcement agencies from seeing applications for so-called Z visas, which can lead to citizenship if granted. Cornyn said legal authorities should know if applicants have criminal records that would warrant their deportation.
Opponents said eligible applicants might be afraid to file applications if they believe they are connected to deportation actions. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said in an interview that Cornyn’s amendment was “not a deal-killer” but would have to be changed in House-Senate negotiations.
That Associated Press article was from the Hartford Courant, by the way.
Which Senators should we call to keep this thing divided? Do you have a record of their vote? I’m looking for it on thomas.loc.gov...
I agree. So far this is the only so-called “killer amendment” the pro-criminal axis lost the vote on. Hopefully, the good guys will have a better day tomorrow.
Follow the “Roll Call Votes” link at the bottom of the page.
1-800-417-7666. (English number) will direct you right to your Senators . . . please tell them you oppose this bill.
People should be more upset that than they are (it was barely on the news last night) that they killed an amendment to the amnesty bill that would have barred giving legal residence to felons. In other words, 600,000 felons who are currently illegal and could be deported will be given the right to remain in the country legally. They did pass Kennedy’s amendment that will bar sexual offenders from residence . . . which he put in to kill the stricter amendment barring all felons . . . but the Senate then voted to allow murderers, armed robbers, credit card fraudsters (which is how a lot of the Muslim terrorists fund themselves), and all other felons to be given the Z visa and stay. Here in Florida, where I live, we will probably get over 10% of them . . . over 60,000 new criminals to legally walk our streets with full rights when they get out of jail. It’s horrible to think about but they will be walking the same streets as my daughter.
Then follow the most recent (110th) under “Senate” (on the Roll Call Votes page).
To get information about texts and discussions of a bill, it’s best to have the bill number and enter it in the text box on the front page of the Thomas site. You can find info by way of keyword searches, but that usually takes more time.
Try these for keywords.
Secure Borders Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007
Scratch my suggestion for searching the Thomas site. Simply get the bill and amendment information from the Roll Call Vote record links. Just have a look at the vote rosters (behind links) and follow the information links to the Thomas site from there.
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/vote_menu_110_1.htm
Oh sure there's some who don't like it... like the conservatives and their base. -Fred Barnes, 06/06/2007
The concrete between Fred's ears appears to be of superior quality... and steel-reinforced.
Even if this Bill fails, we must NEVER forget the 51 Senators (including my two Republican Senators from AZ) who voted in support of granting Amnesty to Illegal Felons.
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