Congress Nears Deal on Illegal Immigrants (breaking on cable networks)

AP/Yahoo News ^ | 4-6-06 | DAVID ESPO

[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.

[clawrence3]

Not sure which question (if either) that post was intended to answer:

1) Were you against Carter's "amnesty" for draft-dodgers and deserters?

2) What if part of this "amnesty" requires everyone to get in line AFTER those already seeking legal status the right way?

[jackadams]

Exactly, also Vicente Fox is deliberately getting rid of the criminals and dregs of his country. Mexico's rich are emptying their rejects on us and Bush is knowingly helping Fox do it. It's the rich of both countries demoralizing, cheapening American citizens for their own comfort and personal gain.

[clawrence3]

So, you were being sarcastic?

[Serenissima Venezia]

Rush will change sides within the next week or so.

I hope you are wrong, but I am afraid you are right. He's spent much of the past 6 years pandering to the administration and has only come out against illegal immigration now that he can't avoid it. Although, he is coming down hard against any guestamnesty bills, so it would be tough for him to change his tune. I suspect he'll just not speak of it again, as he's done before this week.

Hopefully, the other hosts will keep it alive. Laura Ingraham is great on it. If they do, Rush will have to bring it up if he wants to keep listeners.

[lqclamar]

People here for less than 2 years have to leave. That's a good first step.

If ALL of these people entered in illegally and thus have no record of when they crossed the border, exactly how are the feds going to prove that they were here for less than 2 years?

A guy from Mexico who arrived just last week could lie and claim to have been here for 5+ years. The feds couldn't prove otherwise since he obviously didn't "check in" when he crossed the border, and no doubt there are thousands of ACLU/LULAC/MALDEF/National Lawyers Guild/La Raza/Southern Poverty Law Center attorneys out there whou would immediately take his case and challenge the feds trying to deport him in court.

The ONLY thing this compromise bill does is amnesty - and it's amnesty with such a glaring loophole based on trust that it actually makes things worse than they are now. If this passes I guarantee you that it will shift the burden of proof ENTIRELY onto the immigration agents, requiring them - not the illegals - to prove that the people they are trying to deport were here for less than 2 years.

[BohDaThone]

You wrote

>40 illeal Chinese found in a container on the West coast. Drop in the bucket compared to the amount of people crossing the border every day. There were probably 10 times that number that many illegals crossing in one minute.

Great Math , Bub. 400 a minute. 24,000 per hour. 576,000 per day. So the entire population of mexico is here by Christmas. You may think that, in a fevered imagination, but it doesn't advance the debate.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

Yes, actually I was against peanutman's plan.

"What if part of this "amnesty" requires everyone to get in line AFTER those already seeking legal status the right way?"

I am so angry with Congress. Right now, as far as I am concerned, the illegals can be deported and barred entry forever. This is our country and yes, we should share the dream. But on our terms, not Mexico's terms. Maybe when I cool off I will be a bit more rational, but make no mistake, my rage is with those in DC who "forgot" to dance with the ones that brought them to the dance.

[CORedneck]

On HR4437, I like most of the bill except for the clause that requires states to sign the AAMVA Driver License Agreement (DLA) as a part of the Scott Gardner Act that got included by Sensenbrenner. It's ironic that HR4437 goes against Mexico the most but yet, with the DLA, our driver license databases would be share with foreign countries (Canada and Mexico as a start). On the surface, it goes against Mexico but beneath the surface, our states will be required to allow Mexico access to sensitive data such as SS#'s.

Remember my friends, this DLA as pushed by the AAMVA needs to die once and for all ! It is bad and an invasion of privacy !

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

There is no conservative vying for DeWine's seat.

My point is that he is committing political suicide, whether he realizes it or not.

His loss would be a certainty by now, had his opponent been Paul Hackett, who actually had a strong anti-immigration plank in his platform.

For better or worse the Dem. party apparatus twisted his arm to resign once they realized that he wasn't getting on the open borders bandwagon.

[warsaw44]

Oh it will happen!
Brace yourself for the weepy eyed illegals on the 6:00 evening news " I have been here for 50 years but I don't have any documentation. I was forced to buy the phony documents. Now that I have been found out the racist INS is deporting me ! "
The deportation of course wont happen. The INS agent who denied them citizenship will retract his ruling and grant them whatever the hell said illegal wants.

[bill1952]

We also made it through the first two years of Clinton just fine as well. Not the greatest, but it was bearable.

Can't agree with the point that you are leading up to.

The greatest damage - and there were so many things that we would need another thread posted - from clinton were the hundreds of Federal judgeships that he appointed.

That is a burden that we cannot escape for a generation.

I cannot stomach more of these.

[citizensgratitude]

What do you think of a president who allows congress to print worthless money that isn’t backed by anything of value, who lets millions of Mexicans into our country, who wants to give them amnesty (now he’s calling it a guest worker program). He’s openly advocating violation of our immigration laws and he ought to be tarred and feathered for it.

Don’t you know it’s his deficit that is destroying our currency value with inflation?

I am studying: http://nesara.org and I won't stop reading there until I fully understand. Thanks

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

You just don't get it, do you?

[JeffAtlanta]

No! You stop the guy that's shooting first! I want to stop the ALL.

Fine...we should also try to stop the 1,000 illegal Chinese immigrants that come over every year.

[samcgwire]

I gave up anwering your posts a long time ago. Your posts don't even hit my radar, I just see crap and point it out, like if a dog crapped in a friend's house, I'd consider cleaning it up for him.

[Baseballguy]

I think every american should serve the Boarder patrol 2 weeks a year as part of "ICE" Immigrant Customs Enforcement of the Homeland security.

[MaDeuce]

"Not even a good try at hiding your contempt for Mexicans"

Oh I'm sorry, did you think I was trying to HIDE my contempt for them. Kind of like them trying to hide their contempt for my country with burning American flags and hanging them upside down.

Next protest, they should be machine-gunned as enemy combatants.

[kenboy]

If a few thousand burger joints shut down, that's too bad

Sigh.

This is so frustrating. First of all, I disagree with your assessment that it's a few thousand burger joints that get shut down -- because of their deep corporate pockets and high profiles, I think the McDonalds of the world are the ones least likely to hire illegals -- but OK, let's split the difference -- let's say a few thousand places shut down, half burger joints and half actual restaurants.

Let's say it's 3,000 places total, and let's say they're distributed evenly throughout the country -- 60 per state. 30 burger joints, 30 restaurants. Let's say each place employs a total of 50 people, between cooks, counter people/waiters, cleanup crew, management, etc. Let's say 10% are illegals in each place.

Poof, they're shut down. 45 Americans and 5 illegals out of jobs in each place. That's 2,700 Americans and 300 illegals per state; 135,000 Americans and 15,000 illegals nationwide.

Don't leave, because here comes the fun part.

First, we get to deport the foreigners. Let's not forget their families. Let's be conservative and assume that each illegal comes from a two-person household. So we have 30,000 illegals to move. Now, let's figure that 2/3 are Mexican; the rest are from other countries, and assuming very few are Canadian, they'll be needing to be transported via methods other than over land. So, we'll need to bus 10,000 to Mexico -- I have no idea how many people you can fit on a bus, but let's say it's 75, which I think is generous, so that's 133 bus trips to Mexico. Not sure who's paying for the gas or the use of the buses, but I'm sure we can work it out. Now, the other 5,000 illegals, I'll leave it to you to work out the payments to cruise lines (unlikely they'd be volunteering their boats for this) and airlines, though, you might also want to address what happens when the illegal immigrant, with no ID and a false name, tells us they're from country X and country X says "no they're not, we're not taking them."

While you're working on that problem, we'll talk about the 135,000 Americans we just threw out of work. Now, the burger joint ones were probably mainly teenagers, so that's not too important -- unless you own, say, a record store or a gas station or a soda shop or any of the other places where teens spend their spare money -- but let's ignore that problem, too, and figure out how many grown Americans we put out of work. Let's say 20% of the burger joint employees and 80% of the restaurant ones are adults -- so of the 67,500 burger joint Americans we fired, just 13,500 will have families, rents, car payments, etc. to worry about, along with 54,000 of the ones from restaurants. Add them together, that's 67,500 adult Americans now unemployed. And how much money are they now suddenly not spending?

How much did we just save by kicking those 15,000 employed immigrants out of the country?

Feel free to change any of the percentages I picked out of thin air, and correct my math if I fouled any of it up -- but don't miss my points. There are enormous ripple effects possible here, and simply saying "shut down the businesses and round up the workers" is a bit simplistic and ignores a very real possibility of economic disaster.

[citizensgratitude]

ginsburg? aweful thing.

[Bikers4Bush]

By reminding him of what happens the next time he comes up for election.

A stance that holds even more significance if DeWine is thrown out.

The true fact of the matter is that by and large I only concern myself with the large policy failures and betrayals.

DeWine has been front and center for helping the democrats limp along these past few years. It's time for him to reap what he's sown.