Leaders to give immigration bill critics coveted votes in hunt for broader support (The slime job)

Union Tribune /AP ^ | June 19, 2007 | Julie Hirschfeld Davis

[IrishMike]

Sixteen of the two dozen amendments the Senate will consider attaching to a revived immigration bill come from senators who helped derail the legislation earlier this month. A list of the proposed changes obtained by The Associated Press illustrates how key Republicans and Democrats plotting to revive the measure before the Fourth of July recess are trying to placate critics by holding votes to address their top concerns.

The proposals range from bids to make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to gain legal status to attempts to give family members of U.S. citizens more opportunities to immigrate. The bipartisan coalition that crafted the deal is keeping the still-tentative list under tight wraps as they scramble to fine-tune it with an eye toward attracting the widest possible swath of converts to the bill. The measure, which would grant as many as 12 million illegal immigrants lawful status while tightening border security, stalled on June 7 when just 45 senators voted to end debate and move to a final vote – well short of the 60 whose backing was needed.

The package of changes was described by three congressional aides close to the talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the list is confidential and subject to change.

Under the plan, Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., would get a vote on his plan to bar illegal immigrants from getting green cards. Democratic Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia would see consideration of his amendment to limit legalization to certain unlawful immigrants who have been in the U.S. four years or more.

Both voted “no” during the test-vote that blocked the bill's progress.

Also making the list is an amendment by Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., that would bar illegal immigrants from collecting Social Security benefits for work done while they were in the U.S. unlawfully.

Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, one of only 11 Democrats who voted against expediting final action on the bill, would get a vote on her amendment to reduce the number of temporary workers admitted to the U.S. based on how many guest laborers overstayed their visas.

Democrats already succeeded in revising the bill to lower the cap from as many as 600,000 per year to 200,000.

There's no guarantee that such proposals would pass – nor have any of their sponsors said publicly that they would back advancing the bill if they had a chance to air their amendments. But Senate leaders in both parties believe the list will produce the 60 votes needed to reopen debate on the measure and get it to a final vote.

One senior aide close to the discussions predicted that as many as 24 Republicans would back moving ahead with the bill under the scenario envisioned – compared with just seven GOP senators who did so previously.

Also in the package, as currently drafted, are:

An amendment by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, to mandate that all illegal immigrants return home within two years to gain lawful status. The bill only requires those seeking green cards to do so.

A proposal by Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., to increase the number of points under a new merit-based green card allocation system that could be awarded for being related to a U.S. citizen or green card holder.

An amendment by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., to condition any legal status for unlawful immigrants on the measure's border security and workplace enforcement measures. The bill would instead allow such immigrants to get probationary legal status while those so-called “triggers” were being met.

A proposal by Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., to increase penalties on employers who repeatedly hire illegal immigrants.

An amendment by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, to replace the employment verification system with a less-burdensome alternative.

An amendment by Montana's Democratic Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester, who opposed moving to a final vote on the bill, to remove requirements that workers present “REAL ID” driver's license to prospective employers.

An amendment by Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., to let law enforcement agencies share information about people's immigration status.

An amendment by Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont, the sole Independent to oppose the June 7 test vote, to bar companies that have had mass layoffs from hiring foreign high-tech workers.

When the bill would hit the Senate floor was in doubt amid a troublesome debate on energy legislation that threatened to push the immigration bill into next week.

Democrats have begun an elaborate series of procedural maneuvers to allow a test-vote as early as Thursday night on a new version of the measure that includes a $4.4 billion “Immigration Security Account” designed to address the concerns of wavering Republicans.

Meanwhile, GOP hard-liners urged President Bush, an enthusiastic backer of the bipartisan Senate measure, to enforce immigration laws, including those providing for expedited deportation for certain illegal immigrants.

“It's time to be resolute. It's time to show some backbone. It's time to stop amnesty,” said Rep. Peter T. King of New York, the senior Republican on the Homeland Security Committee. “What we want to do is to stop the Senate amnesty bill in its tracks now.”

On the other side of the Capitol, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., a leading critic of the bipartisan bill, made the same plea in a letter to Bush.

“We're working hard to make sure we get a good bill or none,” Sessions said.

[TexasCajun]

I have no idea why Kay Bailey would want to try to put lipstick on this pig?

I called and told her phone-monkey that I want Border Security First, Immigration Reform Second.

[AU72]

We’ll let you get your amendments. Wink Wink, Nudge Nudge.

[edcoil]

Doesn’t matter what amendments they add. They simply will not enforce the law.

Also, I understand if these differ from any House Amendments, if the house is nuts enough to pass any/all amendments are simply tossed out before going to the president for signature.

[3AngelaD]

This is such a bait-and-switch tactic I am forced to believe they are being given cover to vote the way their constituents don’t want them to vote, and that they are duplicitous enough to take it. They are being offered a chance to have the amendments voted on in exchange for their vote to invoke cloture. Their amendments are going to fail, and everyone involved knows it. THEY THINK WE ARE IDIOTS.

[AuntB]

And in the meantime, this administration is setting up health care for ‘migrants’ along the border.

” MEXICO CITY, June 18 (Xinhua) — The health ministers of Mexico and the United States are to work out a joint strategy Tuesday for caring Mexican migrants suffering health problems along the border, the Mexican Health Ministry said on Monday.

The final plan will be sent to the U.S. Congress that is now in recess, the ministry said in a statement.

Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said he began talking about the health plan for migrants with his U.S. counterpart Michael Leavitt a few weeks ago in Geneva, Switzerland, at the World Health Organization headquarters.

“The plan would guarantee basic medical help for thousands of future migrants as they cross the border,” Cordova said. “[snip]
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-06/19/content_6261189.htm

[CharlesWayneCT]

But Senate leaders in both parties believe the list will produce the 60 votes needed to reopen debate on the measure and get it to a final vote.

This is a constant lie told to us by the media now that the Democrats are in charge. The media just repeats the Democratic talking point lie.

They don't need 60 votes to "reopen debate". They need 60 votes to CLOSE OFF DEBATE.

They can bring the bill up ANY time and debate it all they want without ANY votes. It's just the democrat leader decided that if there was no end in site, he wouldn't allow anybody to work on the bill at all. He's forcing the senate to agree to cut off debate in exchange for getting to have votes on amendments.

He did the same thing with a couple of other bills, and in each case the Media repeated his lie that the republicans "stopped the debate" or voted to "stop working" on something when in fact it was a vote to END the debate.

[SirJohnBarleycorn]

GOP hard-liners urged President Bush, an enthusiastic backer of the bipartisan Senate measure, to enforce immigration laws

Actually administering our current law, which the Administration already has a sworn constitutional duty to do, is considered the "hard-line" position. What a joke.

What a bunch of arrogant b@stards Bush, Kyl, McCain, Lott, Graham et al. are, telling us that while they may have failed in their basic duty to protect our borders, we "bigots" and "nativists" are to shut up and swallow tens of millions of foreign peasants so their business buddies can have cheap labor and foist their costs onto taxpayers.

Of course we're all odious "bigots" and "nativists" until April 15, then we become wonderful "taxpayers" who have the honor and privilege to pay the healthcare, education, prison, police, welfare, etc costs of their peasant labor force.

[upchuck]

The bipartisan coalition [read: traitors] that crafted the deal is keeping the still-tentative list under tight wraps as they scramble to fine-tune it with an eye toward attracting the widest possible swath of converts to the bill.

Under wraps?

Our Founding Fathers [NOT, "The Founders"] are spinning in their graves. It's a shame when our Republican form of government, the most successful the world has ever seen, has to resort to subterfuge to get something passed.

For shame!

[WesternPacific]

"Selling one's soul to the Devil" comes to mind.

[gubamyster]

ping

[mewzilla]

A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murder is less to fear.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

[meandog]

Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’
Though the Rio Grande's swollen
Keep them wetbacks rollin’
Rawhide!

Rain and wind and weather
Hell-bent for leather
Wishin’ George Bush was on our side.v All the things he’s forgettin’,
His legacy he’ll be regrettin’
Are waiting at the end of this ride

CHORUS
Move ‘em on, head ‘em up
Head ‘em up, move ‘em on
Move ‘em on, head ‘em up
Rawhide
Count ‘em out, ride ‘em in,
Ride ‘em in, count ‘em out,
Count ‘em out, ride ‘em in
Rawhide!

Keep movin’, movin’, movin’,
Though they’re disapprovin’,
Keep them wetbacks movin’ Rawhide!

(whip crack sound, Howard Dean yell)

Don’t try to understand ‘em,
Just deport and disband ‘em,
Soon we’ll be living high and wide.
Boy my heart’s calculatin’
My true country’s ’waitin’,
waiting at the end of our ride.

(whip crack and Howard Dean yell)

Move ‘em on, head ‘em up,
Head ‘em up, move ‘em out,
Move ‘em on, head ‘em out Rawhide!
Set ‘em out, ride ‘em in>
Ride ‘em in, let ‘em out,
Cut ‘em out, ride ‘em in Rawhide.

(multiple whip cracks and Howard Dean yeaa-a-a-a sounds!)

[Ohioan]

Being allowed to propose an amendment, which the sell-out crowd has the votes to vote down, is only putting window dressing on a farce.

This is not about letting Senators make a record of voting for good sounding provisions, that are voted down. This is about protecting the very character of our communities; about protecting the birthright of our rooted peoples; about preserving the space, resources, and traditional culture of our own people, from those who would overrun them and those who for a temporary economic advantage, would sell out their neighbors to lower their labor costs; and from those crack-pot theorists to whom all nations are the same, and all people interchangeable, in their attack on the very concept of the sovereign nation.

For issues that should be considered in any immigration bill: Immigration & The American Future.

William Flax

[BoneShaker]

Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott, Mississippi Republican, said those amendments will simply disappear when the House and Senate go to conference.

"No big deal -- you pitch those before you get to the Rotunda," he said.

[IrishMike]

A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within.
An enemy at the gates is less formidable.
.
.
RINO’s are theTokyo Rose’s of the modern era.

(I’ve adjusted my tag line thanks to your post)

[mewzilla]

One other quote springs to mind...

Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason? Why if it prosper, none dare call it treason.

Ovid

[Reaganwuzthebest]

They're making it sound like these Senators a bunch of little kids, let me have my amendment or I'm going home. In the end no amendment, even if it's passed and not removed in conference as Lott has already promised to do will change the fact we'd be stuck with amnesty and a doubling of legal immigration, which is already through the roof.

Vote no on cloture and kill this bill.

[IrishMike]

A song writin’ FReeper

[IrishMike]

OK boy and Girls,
line up here at the cookie jar,
no jostling now,
there’s plenty for all.