How dare you bother to bring logic and comprehension into this!!
Can't you see that many here are too busy with the orgy of Bush Bashing to be trifled with such things??
From: The Federation for American Immigration Reform Legislative Update
Senator Byrd To Hold Up Section 245(i) In Senate
Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) said he will delay passage of border-security legislation because of the Section 245(i) amnesty provision the House attached to it last week. In December, the first time the House passed the bill, Senator Byrd put a hold on the border-security legislation because he wanted the bill to be debated and to allow senators to add amendments to the bill.
The House last week approved the legislation by 275-137 - a single vote more than the two-thirds required by the procedural rules under which the bill was considered. Section 245(i) would restore a provision allowing illegal aliens to pay the INS $1000 and remain in the country, subject to only a cursory U.S. police record check, before receiving green cards.
Senator Byrd said of the Section 245(i) provision,"It is lunacy - sheer lunacy - that the president would request, and the House would pass, such an amnesty at this time. That point seems obvious to the American people, if not to the administration." Byrd continued, "Supporters of the House-passed extension of the so-called Section 245(i) provision were quick to claim that it is not an amnesty. The issue, they argue, is where you fill out your paper work--here or abroad. That is nonsense--N-O-N-S-E-N-S-E, nonsense. Section 245(i)--amnesty is amnesty--pure and simple."
The section 245(i) provision, which expired last April, allows undocumented immigrants to seek permanent residency without leaving the United States, if they pay a $1,000 fee and have a close relative or employer sponsor them. Without the provision, these immigrants would be forced to leave the country, and under tougher illegal immigration reforms passed in 1996, be barred from reentering for up to 10 years. If waiving tougher penalties for illegal aliens is not a form of amnesty, then I don't know what is.
Nonetheless, President Bush is insisting on passage into law of the amnesty provision before his meeting this week with Mexican President Vicente Fox. We will keep you updated on further developments.
Sensenbrenner Not Waiting For Administration On INS Reform
After the INS notified a Florida flight school that the two men who had piloted hijacked jetliners into the World Trade Center had been granted legal status to study in the United States, House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) said he is through waiting for the Bush Administration to act and will move through his committee legislation that would split the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) into two separate agencies. Sensenbrenner said, "We have all been dumfounded. This fiasco is indicative of the enormous mismanagement at the INS."
Sensenbrenner is now encountering strong resistance from the Bush administration on how to reform the agency because President Bush opposes Sensenbrenner's legislative remedy. Bush said on March 13 that his INS Commissioner, James Ziglar, should be given time to fix the agency's problems. "His responsibility is to reform the INS. Let's give him time to do so," Bush said. So far, the only thing INS Chief James Ziglar has done is to announce that four high-level INS managers were shuffled into new positions Friday in the wake of the embarrassment.
In addition, one of the managers, Michael Cronin, who was acting executive associate commissioner and has been named the assistant commissioner for inspections, is still the Chairman of the Data Management Improvement Act of 2000 Taskforce which was created by Congress to implement the creation of an Entry-Exit border system to track visa overstayers. Even worse, moving Mr. Cronin to oversee inspections will allow Stuart Anderson, the agency's top official for planning and policy, to assert more influence over immigration programs. Ziglar appointed Anderson as one of a few political appointees, but Anderson is a libertarian crusader for higher immigration and weaker law enforcement.
Anderson, formerly of the Cato Institute and later Senator Spencer Abraham's immigration staffer, has described the very limited immigration law-enforcement response to Sept. 11 as "Gestapo tactics."
Sensenbrenner will mark up the bill (H.R. 3231) on April 10, after holding a hearing on the measure April 9. The legislation, which he introduced in November with Immigration and Claims Subcommittee Chairman George Gekas (R-PA) would create two agencies: one to handle immigration services, one to handle border enforcement. Sensenbrenner said he knows Ziglar "believes the reform can be handled administratively, but I know of no one in Congress that agrees with him."