Posted on 04/06/2006 8:33:43 AM PDT by STARWISE
WASHINGTON - In a last stab at compromise, Senate Republicans and Democrats reported progress Thursday toward agreement on legislation opening the way to legal status and eventual citizenship for many of the 11 million immigrants now in the U.S. illegally.
"There's been tremendous progress overnight," said Sen. Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record) of Nevada, the Democratic leader, while Majority Leader Bill Frist also expressed optimism that a long-sought compromise might be at hand.
There was no immediate reaction from President Bush, who has made immigration legislation a key priority.
The developments occurred after Frist unveiled a new bill late Wednesday night on the subject as the Senate headed into a test vote on the most sweeping immigration bill in two decades.
In general, the legislation would provide for enhanced border security, regulate the flow of future immigrants into the United States and settle the legal fate of the estimated 11 million men, women and children already in the country.
It was the fate of the illegal immigrant population that proved hardest to legislate, and it has left the Senate on the verge of gridlock for days.
(snip)
Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., as well as other key senators met before the vote to review terms of a proposed compromise.
In general, it would require illegal immigrants who have been in the United States between two years and five years to return to their home country briefly, then re-enter as temporary workers. They could then begin a process of seeking citizenship.
Illegal immigrants here longer than five years would not be required to return home; those in the country less than two years would be required to leave without assurances of returning, and take their place in line with others seeking entry papers.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Illegals probably make up much of his business.
If employers had to file with say the IRS and prove the status of their employees it could be a start.
The employer could then be held accountable for hiring illegals.
The problem with this cartoon is that it does not reflect the two positions.
One position is to not secure the border and to give rights of citizens to those who came, and remain, here illegally. This is the Senate position.
The other position is to secure the border first, make illegals leave the country by enforcing laws against employing them and then, and only then, setting up a rational guest worker program. This is the position of the House, conservatives and most Americans.
This cartoon is a liberal portrayal of a conflict that does not exist.
Listen, I have heard the kind of crap coming from you my whole life. Tell me. What does an illegal look like? Give me a profile. Otherwise, get lost. I have no use for people like you.
That is SO right!
We made it for a bumper sticker.
Less than a quarter of the agricultural industry is comprised of illegal aliens.
We can survive without dirt-cheap lettuce, but we can not survive as a pale simulacrum of Mexico.
If you think that knocking off a few cents on a head of lettuce is worth eradicating the middle class, erasing our borders, and eliminating the English langauge, then rejoice, because the United States Congress seems to agree with your warped perspective.
And the Pubs know it. Which is why they aren't compelled to listen to us anymore.
Republicans do something very predictable to save their hides. If republican congresscritters get off the conservative reservation, Republican voters threaten to vote for Democrats, or not at all.
Democrats threaten to vote for NEW democrats.
We're so idiotically smug, thinking "we'll show those turncoat Pubbies by turning over control to the Democrats! Ha! So there!"
Meanwhile, when democrat congresscritters get off the liberal reservation, DUmmies bring in new liberal democrat blood.
Think about whose strategy is winning? Who is REALLY the dummy?
Race card! You lose.
Hey, Einstein, which race was he being racist against? Specifically, which race?
You are having a hard time coming up with a solution.
Yeah, we'll show 'em. We'll all stay home or vote for some 'not a chance in hell' 3rd party candidate. Then the Democrats will take over the house and senate, and we can get everything we want.
:::sarcasm off:::
"If we would just invade Mexico & overthrow their government.....this issue would be resolved."
Nope you better add most of the South American Countries to your list. It's not just Mexicans coming over.
I say Term limits and a 3rd party.
I'm for a third party that recognizes Americans and not illegal aliens.
Americans are not proposing `coming up with a plan'.
We're proposing enforcement of our existing laws, US Code Title 8.
*You* apologists for foreign lawbreakers are proposing a plan.
But it isn't `Amnesty', oh no: it's a `Guest Worker' program! ("Oh dear, I found this man on our couch this morning. He won't leave so I suppose we'll have to treat him as a guest. by the way he says if we put `sheets on his bed' he'll kill us.")
Don't try shifting the burden to us. We have a solution: existing immigration laws.
You explain to us how additional cumbersome, byzantine legislation is going to solve this problem.
It's okay with you if these illegals stay, because they have jobs?
No, it is not OK for people to flaunt law-breaking. I used to do it a lot when I was young. Driving 70 mph, with blatant disregard for a federal mandate of 55. This behavior cost me a lot in fines, and I was even incarcerated 3 times in city jails. I was very lucky that the extremists did not change the law to a felony and recommend the death penalty. Some candy-@ssed liberal judge let me off light with a license suspension, several thousand dollars in fines, community service, time served, and traffic school. When everything was completed and I obeyed the law for 2 years, my record was cleared. My insurance was outrageous for 8 years. Point being, I scrounged up a job and was hired despite howls of protest that a "criminal" should not work as a dog bather, pizza chef, tire buster, or mechanic. I was driving wages down.
Aren't you aware that you are paying for their healthcare, education, etc?
This grates on me a little bit. Even though some people think it is sporting to watch sick people die on the streets of America while we are spending money on rebuilding hospitals in every other third world cesspool (including Iraq), I do not. Education reform is necessary, just not in the name of immigration reform.
I will not even dignify the last question.
HUH???? In Houston Tx there is not enough transportation to haul them back to Mexico. Anyhow the police would laugh at you and move on.
Step away from the computer, and take a deep breath.
You are doing nothing but insulting fellow FReepers, and it's getting to be a bit much!!
Docs journal reports hospitals being closed, previously vanquished diseases being spread
* * * ...84 California hospitals are closing their doors as a direct result of the rising number of illegal aliens and their non-reimbursed tax on the system.
"Anchor babies," the author writes, "born to illegal aliens instantly qualify as citizens for welfare benefits and have caused enormous rises in Medicaid costs and stipends under Supplemental Security Income and Disability Income."
In addition, the report says, "many illegal aliens harbor fatal diseases that American medicine fought and vanquished long ago, such as drug-resistant tuberculosis, malaria, leprosy, plague, polio, dengue, and Chagas disease." [snip]
Illegals will have no trouble voting for Jeb. Mrs. Jeb was caught trying to smuggle tens of thousands of dollars of designer clothing into this country.
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