Posted on 04/11/2006 11:20:59 PM PDT by FairOpinion
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Following huge nationwide protests, Republicans on Tuesday moved to possibly change two key provisions in a get-tough immigration bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives.
One would turn millions of illegal immigrants into felons and the other has raised concerns that people who provide them humanitarian relief would be punished. Top Republicans insisted that neither is their intent.
Their verbal commitments to revisit those provisions came a day after hundreds of thousands of people held demonstrations nationwide, provoked by the bill that would also erect a fence along much of the U.S.-Mexican border.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican, and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, issued a joint statement, saying: "It remains our intent to produce a strong border security bill that will not make unlawful presence in the United States a felony."
They said an effort had been made earlier to change the bill to make "unlawful presence" a misdemeanor, but it was rejected mostly by Democrats in the Republican-led House.
They also blamed Democrats for stalled legislation in the Senate, which would bolster border security and provide most of the estimated 11.5 million to 12 illegal immigrants in the United States a path toward citizenship.
A spokeswoman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said, "clearly Speaker Hastert and Leader Frist are feeling the heat from the hundreds of thousands of people around the country rallying against the (House) bill that Republicans supported."
Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, said, "Actions speak louder than words, and there's no running away from the fact that the Republican House passed a bill and Senator Frist offered one that criminalizes immigrants."
Millions of people have made their voices heard in support of a comprehensive immigration reform plan and now it is time for action, not empty rhetoric," Kennedy said.
Earlier on Tuesday, senior Republican aides told reporters it is not the intent of the House bill to crack down on humanitarian assistance to illegal immigrants.
They said key House Republicans were prepared to try to revise language in the measure to eliminate such concerns -- if and when the bill is sent to a House-Senate conference.
"We don't want to arrest nuns and priests," said one aide.
The aide cited a letter sent last week to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has voiced concerns that the bill could make them a target for prosecution.
The bill reads, in part, "whoever -- assists, encourages, directs or induces a person to reside in or remain in the United States (illegally) -- shall be punished ...."
The letter to the Catholic bishops was signed by Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King of New York and International Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde of Illinois.
In it, they wrote, "We can assure you, just as under current law, religious organizations would not have to 'card' people at soup kitchens and homeless shelters under the House bill's anti-smuggling provisions.
"Nonetheless, we stand willing to work with you and other persons of good will to ensure humanitarian assistance efforts are not mistakenly ensnared in this moral effort to end suffering at the hands of human traffickers," who bring illegal immigrants into the United States for a profit, they wrote.
" At this point, other than, "But they're MY team!", there doesn't seem to be any reason to cheer for them"
THE ELEPHANT STICKER COMES OFF THE BACK BUMPER OF MY JEEP *TODAY*
I'm replacing it with a NRA decal.
I'm keeping my GOP voter registration so that I can vote in the primaries next year.
Interesting; but...
" In German prison camps during WWII, Allied officers who were given special accomodations were supplied with luxuries such as soap.
It was made from the rendered bodies of Jews. "
They did steal the gold caps from teeth and do horrible mutilating and torturing experiments, but making soap from body fat wasn't one of them. It's unsupported - even the Holocaust museum says so.
My guess is that it was because the Nazis had starved the victims to the point that they didn't have enough fat to make it worthwhile. You've seen the pictures!
It seems there is some valid controversy on the topic. At the very least, it appears that the bastards did engage in some experimental work, and small-scale production -- and, the "rumor" itself seems to have been rooted in threats by the Nazi guards in the camps.
Here are a couple of salient links I just google'd up (you would NOT believe the sick morass of Nazi links google kicks up on a query of that sort!):
The Soap Allegations - Part 2 of 6
The Soap Allegations - Part 3 of 6
(Browsing to previous and following pages would likely be of interest to anyone wishing to persue the matter further. I did not, so, I did not.)
In any case, the principle holds as metaphor for this context, and for any quibblers out there, it wouldn't be hard at all to find any number of thematically comparable metaphors. (For example, does the situation with the Donner Party validate the propriety of cannibalism?)
So, the point stands -- the original point is a pointless point, as it rests on a logical fallacy. The fact that one is a "captive beneficiary" of any commodity does NOT in any way validate anything ABOUT that commodity.
I've seen many citations of the Holocaust Museum where they say that no allegedly "Jewish fat" soap which they've tested has been found to contain human DNA.
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:C8f0L_8kff8J:www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/538996.html
That's the Israeli paper Haaretz, from Google's cache. (page is down the memory hole)
I'm no Nazi revisionist! Those bastards exterminated the entire remaining European branch of my family, as far as I've been able to research. My understanding is that the Jews in the city they were from were marched out of town and shot by Romanian Nazi partisans.
That said, it is very important that the real horros of the Nazis are exposed. Perpetuating myths only gives the revisionists ammo.
I have never had a gardener or house keeper, but I know people who do. Sad thing is that they are stay at home moms and dads that have plenty of time to do house cleaning and gardening, but are to busy shopping at up scale stores and playing golf and tennis. Of course they pay peanut salaries while they themselves make very good money. The worst part is they dump their children off at pricey daycare centers and then wonder why they (the children) are unhappy. The rest of us are stuck with the costs and have both mom and dad working in order to pay for it.
Yep, schools and social workers are paid per student or case. No wonder that school administrators are recruiting students to demonstrate.
I felt viscerally sick when I looked at all the *&@^#% Nazi links that my query returned (nazis soap jews). I had to wade through a mile of sewage to find the links I found. I also found the one you located, but I kept looking, I wanted to make sure I got more than one "witness" on it.
I support the felony provision. I pointed out earlier in a reply that the felony provision would be removed in conference according to House and Senate leadership.
A person who makes a choice to break a law must accept the consequences for it. Our sovereignty has been breached by this invasion. 11-20 million illegals are here and we do not know who they are.
Visa overstays are here as well. Where are they?
They do not enter politics to lead, they enter politics for their own power. They isolate themselves from the average citizen. They have become exactly what our forefathers were trying to get away from. For the life of me, I cannot understand how these people get elected. It is so disheartening. I truly fear what what this country is going to become not only for future generations but for my own children who are 15, 14 and 9. It seems to me that this downslide that we are seeing has come on awfully fast.
But, maybe I'm wrong. I guess we'll find out after the coming elections
This is one voter who is not "owned". I am quite sure I am not alone in this view. There is the Beltway GOP and their elitist ilk and there is the Flyover GOP walking behind trying to clean up the mess.
Bush is for the guest worker program, but he has no intention whatsoever of securing the border.
Even-as it turns out-in their depiction of anti-Semitic illustrations.
How embarrassing for Islam.
Beaten on their own turf.
:-)
WTH do Nazis have to do with Illegals? I said I didn't like the idea of using illegals. I was replying to fair opinion's post #18 and recognized his point that We all are guilty of using the work illegal do whether We know it or not. You'd better check up on the companies that provide your goods and services, you might be surprised who their employees are!
This is a victory for criminals, illegals, their supporters and benefactors who benefit from cheap labor and all those who seek this nation's ultimate capitulation to a globalist agenda , imo.
It is a big wad of spit in the eyes of every patriot who fought to preserve this union and its Constitution and rule of law against all enemies and invaders foreign and domestic.
Not to mention every legal immigrant who obeyed the laws and went thru the process so that they could one day proudly say... "I am an American, first, last and always."
When that distinction is lost, we are lost. We are perilously close to that point.
:)
The Repubs don't want to end the immigration flow either. It means more profit, and no unions. - tom
I think it is a completely bogus arguement. I think you're right, we only need the will to do it. I think that is the primary thing missing in all aspects of the border/alien/immigration issues. The will to do what needs to be done. I don't see any of it as particularly complicated as so many contend.
Control the border.
Enforce the law on illegals and employers alike.
Fund ICE so that it can properly process permits/visas/etc and monitor foreign nationals.
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