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.
That would require a spine--Republicans are invertebrates.
You don't have a gardener? Just have your butler hire one. That's what he's there for.
Our status quo politicians are cutting their own throats. If they provide any kind of amnesty, both dems and repubs will end up losing their jobs. Right now we have whole towns taken and some cities taken over with illegals, once they are done "earning" their citizenship they can start taking over goverment. We will then lose are soveriegnty to open borders. That is the true agenda here anyway.
I hate the arguement regarding checking a persons legal status. With the technology we have today it would be very easy. In fact it can be done at the private sector level. If you bounce a check to the grocery store it is known thoughtout the country within a day. Certainly if we wanted to get serious about this we could.
"A (Republican party) divided against itself cannot stand"
No kidding. My wife, as a high school kid, did farm work during the summers. Hard work, low pay. She did it, and so did all the other kids. This, of course, was in the BM epoch (Before Mexicans). Now, our county is close to 20% Mexicans, mostly criminal alien variety, and the high school kids spend their summers goofing off. Great win-win deal, huh?
Oh, BTW, my wife is not some "inbred rural sh!+kicker only suited to dirt-work". She is a schoolteacher, working at the same school she attended, teaching advanced algebra, geometry, and computers.
Of course, she is expected to "teach" a nontrivial number of children of criminal aliens -- kids who cannot "habla ingles". What a hoot! It's more like "Advanced Babysitting." Why does the school tolerate this? Oops, did I say "tolerate"? I meant "encourage", so sorry. They encourage it, because they get MONEY, per head, per day.
Your taxbucks at work.
And he makes LBJ look like a piker on every other issue!
This is SO far removed from "partisan politics" that it ain't funny. It's the life -- or more likely, the death -- of our country. But hey, what's THAT compared to a fat wallet full of Other People's Money?
Implement Prop 187 nationally and the problem fixes itself. No employment, no benefits, no education, urgent care only.
I'm a veteran who put my life on the line to protect and defend this nation from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Had I known that our elected (non) representatives would take us to a point that they are willing to throw open the gates of this nation and invite invaders to peacefully walk in, ignore our national sovereignty, break our laws and be treated by the political aristocracy as saviors come to rescue us from the homogenous nation we used to be, I wouldn't have bothered enlisting.
Nor, I suspect, would my brother, sister, father grandfathers, great-grandfathers, etc. We are being betrayed by people WE elected to represent US, the taxpaying voters who sent them to Congress to enforce OUR will and OUR laws, NOT that of an invading army of law breakers. They are betraying us in spirit, in reality, and using the money WE pay in taxes to buy the allegiance and potential voting power of this illegal invading army. WE put these politicians where they are today and they "serve" at OUR pleasure!! This is a government of, by and for the people, NOT a pandering appeasement organization that welcomes invaders with open arms!!
There is NO acceptable solution except:
1. CLOSE the border
2. NO amnesty
3. NO slap on the wrist misdemeanor punishments
4. NO guest worker programs
5. NO offers of citizenship/legal status
6. Severe penalties for employers who hire them (including having their businesses seized from them)
Anything that is LESS than that is a show-stopper. This issue threatens to split this country apart and it is only because we have a class of gutless, spineless, unethical, anti-American sellouts in Washington deciding against what the majority of Americans want. No spinning by ANY polling group has been able to make the opposition to immigration reform by Americans look like anything other than what it is - a strong, forceful position that most Americans share.
Politicians on both sides of the aisle are shredding the value of American citizenship and willing to sell it for a little as $2,000. That, in itself, is a disgrace!! But they are selling American citizenship to people who have no desire to come here and become part of us, they want to sell it to people whose sole purpose is to conquer the US and turn the nation they "risked their lives to reach" into a newer version of the countries they couldn't wait to leave. THAT's NOT America and it isn't what this nation is about. Our political elites are sacrificing America's future for a small gain today.
This is despicable, cowardly and wrong. If they are so enamored of criminals, why not allow every felon in prison the opportunity to buy their way out of prison by paying a $2,000 fine and a promise not to rape, murder, rob, bludgeon, whatever, again? This, in essence, is what the McCain, Kennedy, Martinez (traitors) are proposing in their amnesty bill.
If this is NOT what you want, you better start speaking up. Otherwise, you better start brushing up on your Spanish-speaking skills, because that's next.
People seem to forget that we elect a PRESIDENT, NOT a DICTATOR or EMPEROR, and thank God for that.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>..........
what bs GOP groupie koolaid thought..the current laws securing the border and illegal immigration ARE NOT BEING ENFORCED BY THIS PRESIDENT. wake up he is allowing law breaking on his shift..guess I should blame Clintonistas?
*slap forehead*
Silly me! Why didn't I think of that?!?!?!?
(And why is the phrase, "Let them eat cake!" running through my mind?)
We must not allow the liberal socialst movement to takeover this country. The liberals are importing the illegals to further their progressive liberal socialist agenda.
Everything they are for we are against, they are determined to takeover and spread their liberal progressive philosophy like a cancer.
IF our (R) Senators continue to cave in to the left as is evident by passing the left-leaning Specter/Kennedy bill we are doomed.
PS/ want to bet that Soro is financially backing the importing of illegals?
I heard a couple of things on the Cavuto show that just about turned my stomach. The topic was a town in CA that was almost 100% "hispanic", and, had established a policy of inviting criminal aliens to move in.
Two statements hit me so hard that I typed them immediately after hearing them. I did not get the names or "positions" of the speakers.
Stick a fork in us, we're done.
* Police are "unfairly going after illegal drivers"
* "I don't think that just because someone is illegal, he is a criminal"
Wrong. Toss the treasonous scum who deliberately hire the illegals in jail for a year, and the problem will resolve itself quickly and without need for mass deportations.
Well, that's one thing you won't have to worry about. No way in hell are they going to MAKE "our new citizens" actually PAY that $2,000 fee. I mean, think about it. If I was told that I had to suddenly cough up SIX THOUSAND DOLLARS CASH to pay for MY family -- or, get out of the country -- I'd have no choice but to ask for directions to the bus station.
Now, you tell me how a family of, let's say seven criminal aliens is going to come up with their "fee"? $14,000 cash? Yeah, right.
No, it ain't gonna happen. What WILL happen is that buried on page 463 will be some fine print saying that they "must" pay the $2,000 per head, OR, "upon affirmation of hardship", they will have to "promise" to "perform an equivalent amount of public service."
Notice all the weasel-wording. They won't have to PROVE "hardship" -- they'll simply have to make a statement of "affirmation". Then, they won't have to perform "public service" (of no specific quantity!) -- they will simply have to "promise" to do so. And, of course, NO provision for verification, enforcement, or PENALTY for noncompliance.
You mark my words, it'll go down something like that. It will HAVE to, otherwise the entire program is dead in the water!
(Can you imagine a happy family of twelve Mexicans? $24,000, from people who are working for such lousy wages that they can barely afford to live packed like sardines? LMAO! Yeah, right. Twenty four grand, no problemo, Senor!)
Great line.
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