May 25 2007
Immigration Bill Rolls On
The Immigration Bill is rolling ahead in the Senate.
By a vote of 66-29, senators rejected an amendment by Republican Party legislator David Vitter to eliminate a provision that offers legal status to most of the 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States.
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The Senate also narrowly rejected a proposal by Republican Norm Coleman to allow state and local law enforcement agencies to help enforce immigration laws.
I have issue with some things changed or not included – especially Coleman’s proposal. Hopefully it will go back in at conference. Of course, if the hard right would vote to strengthen the bill instead of gutting it things would be better. Coleman lost by 2 votes. Perfect is the evil of good and continuing with the status quo is dangerous. So as along as the ability to deport criminals stays in under a one-strike-your-out feature this bill is keeping my support. That feature alone makes this bill worth keeping. But we need the guest worker program to get background checks (criminal records) and to provide IDs to those checked and cleared. So far good enough.
Update: Myth busting the myth peddlers:
FACT: The bill would, for the first time, give the Departments of Homeland Security (DHS) and Justice (DOJ) tools to keep certain aliens out of the United States solely on the basis of their participation in a gang.
No conviction is required – if an individual has associated with a gang and helped “aid” or “support” its illegal activity, then he or she is not allowed to remain in the country – even if he renounces his gang affiliation.…
ACT: After the family backlog is cleared in the first eight years after enactment, the bill will eliminate about 190,000 extended family visas per year. By contrast, the category of “extreme hardship” cases is capped at 5,000 visas per year.
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FACT: Illegal workers who ignored deportation orders are not eligible for the Z visa program, except in exceedingly rare cases in which they can demonstrate their departure would “result in extreme hardship.” FACT: The determination of what constitutes “extreme hardship” lies entirely within the discretion of the Secretary of Homeland Security, who has no interest in allowing this exception to be abused.
Unlike the cries of that the sky is falling from the right, these concerns from the far left are serious concerns. They are not getting what they wanted. Seems to me all the right people are pissed off on this bill. How many times did Cons hit liberals for incidentally allying themselves with al Qaeda on Iraq? Tons of times. Seems some kettles are going around calling some pots ‘black’. Look at the alliances against the bill – uber nationalists and anything goes lefties. No wonder this bill’s time has come.
Update: The hardliners are killing the GOP:
For a certain kind of conservative, any attempt to grant a legal status to illegal immigrants is as welcome as salsa on their apple pie. One conservative commentator claims that the law is “going to erase America” — an ambition even beyond Ted Kennedy’s considerable powers. Another laments that “white America is in flight” — and presumably not just to Jackson Hole or Nantucket for the summer.
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If a Republican presidential candidate doesn’t get about 40 percent of the Latino vote nationwide, he or she doesn’t stand much of a chance on an electoral map where Florida and the Southwest figure prominently. A nativist party will cease to be a national party.
Breaking 40 percent is possible for Republicans. President Bush did it in 2004. Republican momentum among Hispanic voters has been strong in the past decade — until Rep. Tom Tancredo and his allies began their conflict with the fastest-growing segment of the electorate.
Conceding Latinos to the Democrats in perpetuity is a stunning failure of political confidence. If the Republican Party cannot find ways to appeal to natural entrepreneurs, with strong family values, who are focused on education and social mobility, then the GOP is already dead.
Well, some of it is dead anyway. The question is whether the condition is fatal or correctible. For our nation’s sake in the fight against al Qaeda I hope it is correctible. My fear is ,from what I have seen the last week, is it is probably fatal – to all of us. We will surrender to al Qaeda because some folks got all worked up over documenting undocumented workers. Just crazy.
10 SEC. 132. BORDER RELIEF GRANT PROGRAM.
11 (a) Grants Authorized-
12 (1) IN GENERAL- The Secretary is authorized to award
13 grants, subject to the availability of appropriations, to an
14 eligible law enforcement agency to provide assistance to
15 such agency to address–
16 (A) criminal activity that occurs in the jurisdiction of
17 such agency by virtue of such agency’s proximity to
18 the United States border; and
19 (B) the impact of any lack of security along the
20 United States border.
These impact grants are subject to available funds and have no specified limitations as to amount. So every small town can justify a gimmy because I need grant and fight over it with every other small town and wait years for all that paperwork to be processed.
There is a conflict in the bill between sections 132 (a) (3) and section
132 (d) (1) since the latter section adds eligibility for High Impact areas over 100 miles from the border which is not addressed in the former section.
(e) Authorization of Appropriations-
7 (1) IN GENERAL- There are authorized to be appropriated
8 $50,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2008 through 2012 to
9 carry out the provisions of this section.
10 (2) DIVISION OF AUTHORIZED FUNDS- Of the amounts
11 authorized under paragraph (1)–
12 (A) 2/3 shall be set aside for eligible law
13 enforcement agencies located in the 6 States with
14 the largest number of undocumented alien
15 apprehensions; and
16 (B) 1/3 shall be set aside for areas designated as a
17 High Impact Area under subsection (d).
50 million for splitting between all impacted cities is not going to get very far.
Merlin, this is double speak:
“enforcement agencies located in the 6 States with
the largest number of undocumented alien”
if the bill is passed, there will be no undocumented aliens, they’ll all be probationary.
If you think the visa process is going to work, read this article about how it will totally overload the system
http://tinyurl.com/34nwv5
So let’s assume (conservatively) that 12 million illegals apply for the amnesty within the year allowed. Since the federal government is open for business 250 days a year, there will be an average of 48,000 amnesty applications every day.
USCIS now has about 3,000 “adjudicators” – the caseworkers who’d have to process the Z-visa applications. The Senate bill would only add 100 a year for five years – “subject to the availability of appropriations.” And it wouldn’t be easy to expand the force much faster, due to the difficulty of hiring and training new adjudicators.
So, we have 3,000 people hit with 48,000 applications a day. Of course, on some days – or in some offices – the number could easily double. And with each application, the adjudicator has only one day to determine if the alien is a criminal or a national security threat.
merlin
So, we have 3,000 people hit with 48,000 applications a day. Of course, on some days – or in some offices – the number could easily double. And with each application, the adjudicator has only one day to determine if the alien is a criminal or a national security threat.
I think you’re just looking for the negative in this. Let’s look for the positive. First, there will be no rush to apply, remember they immediately have probationay legality and there is no deadline for them to have to apply. So, say they wait several years to apply, remember if they apply sooner they have to pay a fine, so they will not be in a rush to apply as they’re not gonna get any additional benefits by applying, only penalties. So they wait a few years to apply when the case load is hopefully lower and it will only take 15 -20 years to process their application and then they are denied their application, so then the 20-25 year overloaded system appeals process starts. Again, what is the incentive for them to apply? They have full legal status immediately.
So the way I see it, all the incentive is NOT to apply and if they don’t the adjudicators will not be overloaded and will live longer because they will not have all that stress of trying to cope with an overloaded system. See…..there is a positive… plus, by not applying, the aliens still have full legal status and DON’T have to pay a fine. Ah, another plus….
.
Merlin, their math is wrong. It’s not nearly as bad as they say.
They presently do 6.3 million a year, add the 12 million for the one year that means that the 3000 workers, each working 250 days at 8 hrs a day with no breaks, only have to process one person per 30 minutes. That will clearly give them time to call the DMV and do a proper background check in Bogota, Rio, Mexico City, etc. Of course if anyone misses work that means someone else will have to double up. But clearly 30 minutes is enough time for processing an ap. Fear mongering?
FE
I should have checked their math before I posted, my bad.
Merlin, I was making a joke of it. It shows that nobody has given any thought to whether it is administratively and physically possible to do what they are advocating. It’s clearly not. but, they don’t intend that to be done anyhow. If they did, they wouldn’t make them legal UNTIL after the paperwork was done, not before.
When all these illegal immigrants workers are made legal and become elligible for coverage under the minimum wage, Social Security, Workman’s Comp.,and other mandated perks , and it becomes as expensive to keep one of them on the payroll as it does a US worker with minimum skills, does anyone think Tyson Foods, the pallet makers, meat packing plants, Construction contractors, and their ilk, will gladly accept these expenses. Of course they won’t. They will import a new batch of illegals to replace them. Isn’t that what they did last time we gave amnesty and citizenship to their chattels? They will just imported new chattels, and they will do it again, over and over, every time the government interferes with their profit margins.
They will import a new batch of illegals to replace them.
If they don’t secure our borders, that is PRECISELY what will happen.
The large businesses will make “campaign contributions” to all of the key politicians, and enforcement against employers will be one of those laws that falls by the wayside.
The politicians will get their campaign war chests funded, and the big employers/exploiters of illegal immigrants will get their cheap/slave labor.
Politicians see that as a win-win scenario.
You combine the exporting of all of our good manufacturing jobs overseas or to Mexico, with the importing of cheap labor (which depresses wages in all markets), and it is getting more and more difficult to find a blue collar job that pays a wage that a family can survive on.
We are putting a serious squeeze on the middle class and the poor.
Well, I’ve been away with a quick two night road trip up the coast hwy to Sant Barbra for the weekend and now I’m rested and refreshed and back home.
AJ, do you deny that this bill has many outright fraudulent sections in it or do you really believe things are going to happen just as the George Soros funded groups claim and that the majority of mexicans are going to comply with it? I’m just curious. I think there are many people out there who are supporting it who believe that even if twenty percent of this bill actually does take root that it will be worth it. My thinking is, it is only the worst, most damaging twenty percent that are actually going to happen no matter what. And I really believe that the people who are supporting this bill know that. Trust me, this bill is primarily a lock on the 08 election. The reason I believe that is that voting rights and motor voter are NEVER MENTIONED in the bill. The reason for that is that is keeps those factors out of the debate! That keeps it off the mind of people who would oppose such a bill if they realized that is what we’re talking about. That is why Ted Kennedy is smiling!
That is precisely why Ted Kennedy is smiling. He knows the percentages on how the Hispanic community votes, he knows the birthrate among Hispanics, he knows that the children will, in all likelihood, vote along the same party lines as their parents, he knows that you won’t be able to stop them from voting, and he knows that it will be the end of the Republican party. Why wouldn’t he be smiling?
100 million new voters, with a birthrate much higher than our general population, who will vote approximately 60% Democrat. That equals a 20 million voter advantage to Democrats. And, coincidentally, that 20 million voter advantage will only grow over time due to the higher birthrate.
You can kiss the Republican party goodbye.
Before you celebrate this fact, you may want to consider precisely what that will entail –
An adoption of the appeasement strategy
Higher taxes
A complete surrender to Al-Queda (it’s our own fault they attacked us don’t you know)
Higher taxes
A reduction in free speech
Higher taxes
Legal prosecution of their political opponents (think “Libby”)
Higher taxes
A complete collapse of the high quality health care that we currently receive in favor of the “please wait 12 months for anything” socialized medicine system.
Higher taxes
A much smaller military (who needs national defense – that’s just hooey)
Higher taxes
Liberal judges out the wazoo enforcing their grand social coup
Complete depression of our economy due to higher taxes and an avalanche of cheap labor
And did I mention higher taxes
All hail our new Democrat overlords and the new United Socialist States of America.
Wow. I just had a very long post get eaten. That stinks.
Next time I will make a local copy of my posts. Just in case that happens again.
Apache,
Patience. I am not up 24 hours a day (or on the computer) to free posts. They will come out. They simply get stuck in the spam filters. I found your post hidden among 720 spam comments. Trust me, your post will be much more effective without all the garbage surrounding it in the comment section.
Tues Morning, just saw Carol Meissner, commissioner of INS during Clinton Admin. on Washington Journal She didn’t have a clue. When asked what didn’t work about the ’86 immigration reform, she said that it was because there was no employer verification of immigrants required. She said the border enforcement had improved greatly with many new agents added. Is she in this World? Which year did the ‘great improvement’ in border security start or kick in? I barely noticed. She didn’t mention how many miles of border fence had been completed during her term. But I can assure you it was less than 20 miles. (started, it’s still not complete)
When asked why the new bill will work, she said it is because it will require employers verify that the illegals will be eligible to work.
Huh? The very first thing that happens with the new bill is that probationay benefits will apply which means “all illegals immediately become eligible to work legally” So if “everyone” is eligible, who are they gonna stop from working? She had not read the new bill obviously and if she thinks border enforcement improved greatly under the Clinton Admin, well…. that says enough.
.
Holy Cow!!
I had **assumed** that most of the voting of these illegal immigrants was illegal voting done in States that permit it. For example, here in Oregon the DMV is prohibited by Gubernatorial dictate of inquiring about an applicants legal status. Prohibited! And yes, they accept consular matricula cards as “identification”. They then test you, and if you pass, they give you a driver’s license and register you to vote. We do vote by mail here.
Anyway, I was wrong. If this bill passes, all of the previously illegal immigrants will INSTANTLY be eligible to vote. Not only will they be eligible, the government is going to spend 100 million dollars helping ensure that they do vote!!!!!
Check out section 706 –
SEC. 706. Funding for the Office of Citizenship and Integration.
(a) Authorization of Appropriations- There is authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of Homeland Security the sum of [$100] million to carry out the mission and operations of the Office of Citizenship and Integration in U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, including the patriotic integration of prospective citizens into–
(1) American common values and traditions, including an understanding of American history and the principles of the Constitution of the United States; and
(2) civic traditions of the United States, including the Pledge of Allegiance, respect for the flag of the United States, and voting in public elections.
That’s why Ted Kennedy is smiling.
Hey, notice what is missing in section 706? The beloved escape clause that is used for items involving securing the borders or enforcing our laws.
Wait for it –
You know what it is –
It’s glaring at you –
subject to the availability of appropriations
That phrase is NOT used when referencing the $100,000,000 which will help them vote.
But it is used 15 other times in the proposed bill. All 15 times deal with border security (fence and officers) or enforcement operations (including finding and prosecuting employers who violate the law)!!
Go look for yourself. Open it up in a pdf reader and search for “subject to the availability of appropriations” – minus the quotes.
Apache, what you’re against illegal aliens having the right to vote? you must be a hardliner. (another word for those that want laws enforced)