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THE MOST IMPORTANT DEBATE OF THE YEAR
By Michelle Malkin · May 25, 2006 11:32 AM
An extraordinary exchange just took place on the Senate floor over the last 40 minutes. It's the most important debate of the year, in my opinion.

The questions are these: Who do we let into this country and how many?

On one side of the debate: Democrat Sen. Jeff Bingaman of N.M. and Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama.

On the other side, the blubbering open-borders duo of GOP Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Democrat Sen. Teddy Kennedy of Massachusetts.

Bingaman is offering an amendment to cap the number of visas for legal permanent residents at 650,000. The current Senate immigration bill essentially obliterates the current employer-based green card cap of 140,000. Spouses and children currently count against that cap. Under the Senate bill, that would no longer be true. There would be, in effect, no limits. Bingaman's cap would be four times the current rate--yet both McCain and Kennedy are responding hysterically as if Bingaman has proposed some human rights crackdown on the world.

When Bingaman pointed out the need for prudence in opening the floodgates to unlimited numbers of low-skilled workers, both McCain and Kennedy pulled the race card. McCain's immediate response was to sputter that the "Chamber of Commerce, unions, and Hispanic groups" oppose the caps! McCain called it un-American to be selective about whom we let into this country. Yeah, he did.

When McCain accused Bingaman of "discriminating against" poor immigrants, Bingaman pointed out that the McCain-Kennedy bill itself had a 290,000 cap. No response from the Open-Borders Tag Team.

You've got to watch the exchange for yourselves. We'll have video at Hot Air shortly. (1213pm EDT: Video of first exchange between McCain and Bingaman is up here.) In the meantime, re-read Sen. Sessions' analysis:

http://hotair.com/

Video of first exchange between McCain and Bingaman is up here

Immigration smackdown: Bingaman vs. McCain (Update: Bingaman amendment passes)

http://hotair.com/archives/the-blog/2006/05/25/immigration-smackdown-bingaman-vs-mccain/

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In the meantime, re-read Sen. Sessions' analysis:

http://sessions.senate.gov/pressapp/record.cfm?id=255553

The Immigration Blog is tracking developments throughout the day.

http://michellemalkin.com/immigration/