Earlier today the Senate took the first step towards passage of the immigration reform bill by voting 64-35 to revive debate on the controversial legislation. This was an improvement of 19 votes over the last time the same measure was voted on a few weeks ago. Then, only 7 Republicans joined 38 Democrats in support of moving the bill forward. This time 24 Republicans joined 39 Democrats and Joe Lieberman in voting for the motion. The move was opposed by 25 Republicans, 9 Democrats and Independent Bernie Sanders. However, all this vote did was bring the bill back to the Senate floor where some two dozens amendments will now be debated and voted on.
It is the amendment process that will either make or break this bill. Several Senators switched their votes from earlier in the month because they were promised that their proposed amendments will be voted on. This list includes Sens. Kit Bond (R-MO) Barbara Boxer (D-CA) Norm Coleman (R-MN), Pete Domenici (R-NM), John Ensign (R-NV), and Jim Webb (D-VA). On Thursday another procedural vote is scheduled that will require 60 votes to advance the bill to a final vote.
This bill could collapse at any step in this process if it is dramatically changed in ways that either Democrats or Republicans do not favor. Democrats and Republicans are both ill at ease with this bill. Republicans hate the guest worker program and the pathway to citizenship, while Democrats don’t like the new points system that deemphasizes family ties. Before the vote, President Bush praised the bill and said that America is a better place because of immigration. “The country is better off. Our soul is constantly renewed. Our spirit is invigorated when people come here and realize the blessings of America. And so the bill that we’ve worked hard to craft is an important piece of legislation that addresses the needs of a failed system that says we’re going to change for the better.â€
Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) had this to say after the vote, “Today’s vote was a vote was for a record investment in border security. It was a vote for a stronger economy that’s fair to our taxpayers and workers. And it was a vote for America’s rich immigrant history and future strength. There are big challenges ahead, but we are more determined than ever.  We must remember that at the heart of this issue is work. Immigrants come to this country to work. They come to this country for a better life for themselves and their families – - a chance at the American dream.â€
The problem for supporters of this bill is that one little push too far can send the bill tumbling off the wall like Humpty Dumpty. It could leave their fragile coalition broken and never to be put back together again. I agree with Bush and Kennedy, in principle that we do need to do something to get the 11-13 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. out of the shadows. I just don’t think that this patchwork bill of odds and ends is the way to do it.
My biggest problem with the bill is that both the guest worker and path to citizenship plans won’t work. The fines are too steep. The process takes too long, and there is no incentive for illegal immigrants who are already in this country to participate in the programs. This bill could make the problem worse by driving more illegal immigrants underground. In my opinion, this bill is designed to help the president’s legacy and the candidates next fall, not the illegal immigrants, and this is the biggest reason of all why I oppose it.
Jason Easley is the editor of the politics zone at 411mania.com. Â His news column The Political Universe appears on Tuesdays and Fridays at
Jason can also be heard every Sunday at 6:30 pm (ET) as the host of The Political Universe Radio Show at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thepoliticaluniverse
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2 users commented in " Immigration reform bill survives first test vote "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThe real number one enemy of the criminals in the government is themselves and their actions of the past.
Why would anyone even consider negotiating with anyone that never gets around to keeping their word on any of the immigration laws of the past?
What would be the point?
This is like the people that got caught by their own rules while playing games as children. Every time they would get caught in one of their old rules they would start in on a big speech for a new rule. They never would pay up on being caught on the old rule.
No one plays with them long.
Just what are we still doing dealing with these liars?
Ted Kennedy was a strong supporter of the 1965 Hart-Celler Act signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson which dramatically changed US immigration policy.
This is what Ted Kennedy said about the 1965 bill.
“The bill will not flood our cities with immigrants. It will not upset the ethnic mix of our society. It will not relax the standards of admission. It will not cause American workers to lose their jobs.”
Kennedy is now the chair of the United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship, and remains a strong advocate for immigrants, both documented and undocumented
About the same time, there wasn’t enough room for citizens to have children.
Back in the 60’s the Federal Government came into the public schools and brainwashed us as little children with the message that the children we were about to have were unwanted because the population was rising so fast. They launched a program called, “Zero Population Growth”. They pushed Family Planning and birth control pills. I think you and I now both know that you only have to trick people for their few child bearing years and there is no going back.
Many of us never had a say in the future of our unborn.
I am the result of two living cells. One from each of my parents. They are the result of two living cells, one from each of their parents. I wasn’t just born. I am a continuation of life. I am a living thing that reaches back into time perhaps 400 million years and the result of billions of joining of pairs of cells. It is possible that if you were to follow my cells back to my parent’s cells and beyond that my family tree touches every living thing here on earth. That is if we limit ourselves to believing life was created here on earth. If it rained down from the immensity of the universe it could reach back into that immensity of time and space, and who knows what relationships and who knows what species.
At least until I came up against the United States Federal Government and their plan to control the population.
I have seen the Federal Government do little else to control the population.
The open border, United States laws only apply to some, is a serious slap in the face. No, not a slap in the face, it reaches well beyond that. Maybe back to the beginning of time and stretch to the bounds of the universe.
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