In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
Immigration and the Senate
select-fire
Member Posts: 69,516 ✭✭✭✭
Senate advances sweeping immigration bill By SUZANNE GAMBOA, Associated Press Writer
25 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - The Senate voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to limit debate on election-year immigration legislation, clearing the way for final passage later this week of a bill that calls for tougher border security as well as an eventual chance at citizenship for millions of men and women in the country illegally.
ADVERTISEMENT
The vote to advance the measure was 73-25, 13 more than the 60 needed.
Despite the controversy surrounding the bill, the outcome was not a surprise. Even some of the bill's opponents said they were satisfied they had been given ample opportunity over past week to try and give the bill a more conservative cast.
Final passage would set the stage for a difficult negotiation with the House, which passed legislation last year that exposes all illegal immigrants to criminal felony charges.
President Bush has repeatedly urged Congress to approve an immigration bill that generally follows the approach taken by the Senate, and some senators expressed optimism that a deal could be reached.
"The politics of solving this problem is better than the politics of doing nothing," said Sen. Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record), R-S.C.
"Does someone have a better approach? Not yet. But we're still open for business," said Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Across the Capitol, senior White House strategist Karl Rove met for the second straight week with the GOP rank and file. Asked whether he had made any progress, he told reporters afterward, "Could be."
In the Senate, the final maneuvering was evident.
GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell (news, bio, voting record) sought to add to the bill a requirement that all voters in federal elections be required to present a valid photo identification.
"It is nonsense to suggest that somehow a photo ID for one of our most sacred rights should not be protected by a requirement that is increasingly routine in almost all daily activities in America today," said the Kentucky lawmaker, second-ranking Republican.
But Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (news, bio, voting record), D-Mass., likened the proposal to a poll tax or a requirement for voters to pass a literacy test. "Now is not the time and this is not the place to consider an amendment that may disenfranchise a million or more poor, minority, disabled, and elderly voters - all of them American citizens," he said.
On a vote of 49-48, opponents failed to kill the measure. But it remained in limbo, evidently doomed by arcane rules that took effect once the Senate voted to limit debate.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., predicted before the vote that the bill would receive "not overwhelming support but very strong support" and that a legislative compromise would be reached with the House.
"The problem is too big, with millions of people coming across the border and with hundreds dying as they come across the border," Frist said on NBC's "Today" show. "We as a governing body cannot simply turn and look the other way and say we're not going to do anything about it."
On Tuesday, the Senate called for tougher employer penalties on businesses that hire illegal workers. The vote was 58-40.
Employers who do not use a new computerized system could be fined $200 to $600. The system would include information from the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and Homeland Security Department.
There would be $20,000 fines for hiring illegal immigrants once the new screening system is in place, double the current maximum. Repeated violators could be sentenced to prison terms of up to three years.
Congress passed employer sanctions as part of the 1986 amnesty law, but they were never fully enforced and workers and employers got around them with fraudulent documents.
The Senate bill requires employers to check Social Security numbers and the immigration status of all new hires within 18 months after money is provided to the Homeland Security Department to expand the electronic system for screening workers.
Workers' information would have to be submitted to the electronic system within three days after the worker is hired. The Homeland Security Department would have to confirm the worker is legal or tell the employer the worker can't be immediately confirmed as a legal worker within 10 days.
The measure provides workers opportunities to contest the system's determination and to correct information that may be incorrectly flagging them as illegal workers. It also protects employers from liability if the screening system makes a mistake.
The House passed a bill in December that would impose fines on employers of undocumented workers ranging from $5,000 to $40,000. But, unlike the Senate bill, the House measure would require employers to screen all employees - an estimated 140 million people - instead of only new hires.
Email Story IM Story Discuss Printable View RECOMMEND THIS STORY
Recommend It:
Average (309 votes)
? Recommended Stories
Full Coverage: Immigration
Off the Wires
Immigration bill clears Senate hurdle Reuters, 1 hour, 36 minutes ago Fox says building a fence isn't the answer AP, Wed May 24, 8:50 AM ET Feature Articles
Jobs Americans Should Want; A Fight Over Upward Mobility at The Wall Street Journal, May 23 Keeping an Eye on Migrants -- and Trying to Keep Up at The Los Angeles Times (reg. req'd), May 23 News Stories
House-Senate Battle On Immigration Likely at The Washington Post (reg. req'd), May 24
25 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - The Senate voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to limit debate on election-year immigration legislation, clearing the way for final passage later this week of a bill that calls for tougher border security as well as an eventual chance at citizenship for millions of men and women in the country illegally.
ADVERTISEMENT
The vote to advance the measure was 73-25, 13 more than the 60 needed.
Despite the controversy surrounding the bill, the outcome was not a surprise. Even some of the bill's opponents said they were satisfied they had been given ample opportunity over past week to try and give the bill a more conservative cast.
Final passage would set the stage for a difficult negotiation with the House, which passed legislation last year that exposes all illegal immigrants to criminal felony charges.
President Bush has repeatedly urged Congress to approve an immigration bill that generally follows the approach taken by the Senate, and some senators expressed optimism that a deal could be reached.
"The politics of solving this problem is better than the politics of doing nothing," said Sen. Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record), R-S.C.
"Does someone have a better approach? Not yet. But we're still open for business," said Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Across the Capitol, senior White House strategist Karl Rove met for the second straight week with the GOP rank and file. Asked whether he had made any progress, he told reporters afterward, "Could be."
In the Senate, the final maneuvering was evident.
GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell (news, bio, voting record) sought to add to the bill a requirement that all voters in federal elections be required to present a valid photo identification.
"It is nonsense to suggest that somehow a photo ID for one of our most sacred rights should not be protected by a requirement that is increasingly routine in almost all daily activities in America today," said the Kentucky lawmaker, second-ranking Republican.
But Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (news, bio, voting record), D-Mass., likened the proposal to a poll tax or a requirement for voters to pass a literacy test. "Now is not the time and this is not the place to consider an amendment that may disenfranchise a million or more poor, minority, disabled, and elderly voters - all of them American citizens," he said.
On a vote of 49-48, opponents failed to kill the measure. But it remained in limbo, evidently doomed by arcane rules that took effect once the Senate voted to limit debate.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., predicted before the vote that the bill would receive "not overwhelming support but very strong support" and that a legislative compromise would be reached with the House.
"The problem is too big, with millions of people coming across the border and with hundreds dying as they come across the border," Frist said on NBC's "Today" show. "We as a governing body cannot simply turn and look the other way and say we're not going to do anything about it."
On Tuesday, the Senate called for tougher employer penalties on businesses that hire illegal workers. The vote was 58-40.
Employers who do not use a new computerized system could be fined $200 to $600. The system would include information from the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and Homeland Security Department.
There would be $20,000 fines for hiring illegal immigrants once the new screening system is in place, double the current maximum. Repeated violators could be sentenced to prison terms of up to three years.
Congress passed employer sanctions as part of the 1986 amnesty law, but they were never fully enforced and workers and employers got around them with fraudulent documents.
The Senate bill requires employers to check Social Security numbers and the immigration status of all new hires within 18 months after money is provided to the Homeland Security Department to expand the electronic system for screening workers.
Workers' information would have to be submitted to the electronic system within three days after the worker is hired. The Homeland Security Department would have to confirm the worker is legal or tell the employer the worker can't be immediately confirmed as a legal worker within 10 days.
The measure provides workers opportunities to contest the system's determination and to correct information that may be incorrectly flagging them as illegal workers. It also protects employers from liability if the screening system makes a mistake.
The House passed a bill in December that would impose fines on employers of undocumented workers ranging from $5,000 to $40,000. But, unlike the Senate bill, the House measure would require employers to screen all employees - an estimated 140 million people - instead of only new hires.
Email Story IM Story Discuss Printable View RECOMMEND THIS STORY
Recommend It:
Average (309 votes)
? Recommended Stories
Full Coverage: Immigration
Off the Wires
Immigration bill clears Senate hurdle Reuters, 1 hour, 36 minutes ago Fox says building a fence isn't the answer AP, Wed May 24, 8:50 AM ET Feature Articles
Jobs Americans Should Want; A Fight Over Upward Mobility at The Wall Street Journal, May 23 Keeping an Eye on Migrants -- and Trying to Keep Up at The Los Angeles Times (reg. req'd), May 23 News Stories
House-Senate Battle On Immigration Likely at The Washington Post (reg. req'd), May 24
Comments
conventional long form: United Mexican States
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/mx.html
Mexico's entire labor force is 43.4 million, we have over 1/4th of that here.
Mexico's unemployment rate is 3.6%....
Every day Congress fails to stop the invasion of illegal immigrants...they pop out babies that are automatically US Citizens and get to leach off of the system with those babies.
If they followed procedures they wouldn't be dead. Fox must be one
hell of a president if people from his country are dying to get
away from him.
I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic....
Some words out of the Constitution:
""We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility""
""The Congress shall have Power To repel Invasions""
""Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.""
""The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion""
Somebody's guilty of treason. Those that take the oath aren't repelling the invasion.
The military enlisted oath of the United States of America:
I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic....
Some words out of the Constitution:
""We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility""
""The Congress shall have Power To repel Invasions""
""Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.""
""The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion""
Somebody's guilty of treason. Those that take the oath aren't repelling the invasion.
Most of em' can't read it.. Ain't in Spanish..
NOT YOU MONEY DRINKING gripeS!!!!!!!!
I hope every Cop, Atf, Cia, NSA, NYPD, LAPD, FU PD
Hears me out loud and clear! We are a unique nation! one that is for the single citizen. Once sold out can never be repurchased.
God bless the good men of America, and the world. And God damn the money w hores who control this sphere.
The devil controls this earth! and many of the men on it!!!!! are you one of them!???
The beauty of it all ? You guys that vow undying devotion to corrupt little men...are going to suffer just like those of us that vow undying devotion to the Constitution.
They will come for us before they come for you...but they WILL come for you.This is a government of occupation...and they intend serving Vincente Fox and Mexico, rather then America...and they will destroy you and yours if you fight the invasion.
IMMIGRATION AND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NOT YOU MONEY DRINKING gripeS!!!!!!!!
I hope every Cop, Atf, Cia, NSA, NYPD, LAPD, FU PD
Hears me out loud and clear! We are a unique nation! one that is for the single citizen. Once sold out can never be repurchased.
God bless the good men of America, and the world. And God damn the money w hores who control this sphere.
The devil controls this earth! and many of the men on it!!!!! are you one of them!???
You can hope all you want. Apparently you don't know what the leo goes through. You are ignorant and prove it every day. Any LEO can call immigrations when they pick up a certified illegal and we'll be told by them (INS immigrations and Naturalizations Service), to document it and forward the info to them. I've been told in the past if I didn't have at least 20 to NOT EVEN CALL. So you can blame it on the COP all you want ignoramus, but it won't change a thing until the Feds make something happen. Do you expect a COP from Montana to drive a undocumented alien to the mexico border and kick him out? Get a grip, not on yourself this time and find out SOME facts before you open your blow hole. I guess you don't want, care or need respect but if you are just going to spout off and insult groups of people don't expect all of them to lie down and listen to that fecal matter spewing from your cavernous sphincter.