Bush-Kennedy Bill Up For Crucial Vote today…from FAIR

Capitol Hill news outlets are reporting that the Senate bill will have the first crucial vote on the revived Bush-Kennedy bill late Tuesday morning. The first vote will be a CLOTURE vote on a motion to proceed. This vote, which needs 60 yeas to pass, will determine if the Bush-Kennedy amnesty bill can be brought back up on the floor of the Senate.

Last week, the proponents of the Bush-Kennedy bill began laying the ground work for its resurrection. First, Senator Kennedy took the bill, incorporated amendments that passed, and the $4.4 billion funding provision and reintroduced the bill as S.1639. From there, Majority Leader Reid was able to invoke Senate Rule 14 to skip the committee process and bring the bill directly to the floor.

If the first cloture vote succeeds, Senate Leadership has devised a scheme to tightly control the floor and limit debate on amendments to ensure that the Bush-Kennedy bill has the best chance of passing. First, the grand bargainers huddled together in secret and came up with a list of 22 to 24 amendments they deemed worthy of debate. Then, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced he would use a maneuver called a “clay pigeon amendment” – an amendment that combines all the amendments into one – to control the floor. Senator Reid will offer the clay pigeon amendment, move to divide it back into 22 or so amendments, and have a vote on each one. This prevents Senators from objecting to each amendment as they would otherwise be brought to the floor. Once the votes are taken, Senator Reid will declare he as kept his end of the bargain and move to the second cloture vote. By using the clay pigeon maneuver, the grand bargainers will control the floor, spin the debate, but claim to have given their opponents a fair process.

FAIR is urging all members, activists, and friends to contact their Senators and Leadership offices to urge Senators to VOTE NO ON BOTH CLOTURE VOTES. Please tell your Senators that the American people deserve more from the United States Senate than an ill-conceived bill drafted in secret to appease special interests. Tell your Senators that S.1639 is a bad bill that will only make an unacceptable situation even worse.

At this point in time, most observers feel the votes are too close to call. President Bush used his weekly radio address to urge Senators to pass the Bush-Kennedy bill. In addition, FAIR’s Senate sources are reporting that the White House has been lobbying intensely behind the scenes, attempting to twist arms in order to save what many consider to be President Bush’s top domestic priority—amnesty. Whether the administration’s last ditch efforts will work is still unclear. Last week, the grand bargainers suffered several major setbacks when Senators Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Johnny Isakson (R-GA), and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) all announced they would vote NO on cloture. In addition, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told the Associated Press that he had misgivings about the bill and that, while he would see how the amendment process turned out, was not sure how he would vote. Finally, last week the powerful AFL-CIO labor organization officially announced its opposition to the bill because of its massive guest worker program.

Stay tuned to FAIR for updates on the Bush-Kennedy amnesty bill…

CBO Estimates that Bush-Kennedy Bill Will Only Reduce Illegal Immigration by 13 Percent!

On June 4th, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a cost estimate of S.1348 (now S.1639) which estimated that the Bush-Kennedy bill would not do much to solve the illegal immigration crisis facing the United States. Specifically, the CBO report estimated that even if fully funded, the Bush-Kennedy bill would reduce illegal immigration at the border by 25% but would at the same time actually increase the number of illegal aliens through aliens who overstay their Y guest worker and H-1B visas (increased in the bill). Thus, the net reduction in illegal immigration will only be about 13 percent over the next 20 years!

Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) last week sent a letter to his Senate colleagues summarizing the CBO report and pointing out the importance of its findings. He wrote, “I believe you will be as shocked as I was” when reading the report. Sessions lamented that while proponents of the Bush-Kennedy legislation claim the bill will secure the border, decrease illegal immigration, and restore the rule of law to our immigration system, the CBO report demonstrates that the Bush-Kennedy bill will not fulfill these promises.

AFL-CIO Opposes Bush-Kennedy Bill

AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest federation of labor unions and a powerful political force, announced Wednesday that the organization formally opposes the Bush-Kennedy amnesty bill (S.1639). At a press conference to announce their position, Ed Sullivan, President of AFL-CIO’s Building and Construction Trades Department, said that the immigration bill is “dangerously flawed.” He argued, “This legislation won’t work because creating any workable solution to this crisis must first begin with, and remain centered upon, the impact that it will have on American workers. This bill failed that measure from the very start.”

While the SEIU (Service Employees International Union) has advocated for granting amnesty to illegal aliens and promoted chain migration, unions such as AFL-CIO see a real threat to American workers under the Senate bill because temporary foreign workers would for the first time be able to hold non-seasonal jobs (Associated Press). Ana Avendano, an AFL-CIO attorney and director of its immigrant worker program, said that would give employers like Wal-Mart and owners of meatpacking and poultry plants a lower-wage source of year-round workers that could be exploited (Associated Press). Similarly, at the press conference, Richard L. Trumka, Secretary-Treasurer for AFL-CIO, said the guest-worker program would create a situation “ripe for exploitation” and would increase unemployment among American workers as traditionally permanent jobs are filled with temporary foreign workers. “The bottom line,” he said, “is that this bill is far from the kind of comprehensive immigration reform that would improve the status quo for either U.S.-born or immigrant workers or their families, and, in fact, it is likely to make matters much worse.”

Also participating in the press conference were Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and United Food and Commercial Workers International President, Joseph T. Hansen. Senator Sanders, who has actively opposed the Bush-Kennedy amnesty bill, stated that the bill’s guest worker provisions would only succeed in making “a bad situation worse.” Mr. Hansen echoed Sanders’ criticism of the guest-worker program, stating that such programs may create an “underclass of workers.”

Despite the AFL-CIO’s position, some unions have expressed support for the bill. Most notably, among the bill’s supporters are Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and UNITE HERE (representing hotel, restaurant, laundry, and textile industries) who both see a recruiting target in those 12 million now-illegal aliens. They also are in favor of keeping temporary foreign worker programs, which are popular with immigrants, as long as the government ensures the workers are not abused. SEIU Vice President President Eliseo Medina said only about half of the foreigners coming to the United States under those conditions would want to stay permanently anyway (Associated Press).

AJC opinion page today
Federal bill would rob poor, benefit corporations

By CHIP ROGERS

Published on: 06/26/07

Assume Congress was considering a “comprehensive” plan to reduce wages for the poor, increase crime in minority neighborhoods, further diminish already failing public schools, and seriously strain an overburdened health care system.

Surely such a proposal would be dismissed as “un-American.”

(ENLARGE)
State Sen. Chip Rogers authored Georgia’s tough new law on illegal immigration.

Yet this is exactly what the current amnesty/guest worker bill would accomplish.

While multinational corporations brazenly urge Congress to decriminalize the subsidized illegal labor of an estimated 20 million illegal aliens, there has been little public exposure of what would happen to low-income U.S. citizens, particularly minorities.

T. Willard Fair is president of the Urban League of Greater Miami, and in his own words devoted much of his adult life to “helping black men build constructive lives.”

During recent testimony before Congress, Fair asked real-life questions striking at the heart of the proposed amnesty:

“Think about it this way: If there’s a young black man in Liberty City, where I live, who’s good with his hands and wants to become a carpenter, which is more likely to help him achieve that goal — amnesty and more immigration, or enforcement and less immigration?

“Which is more likely to help an ex-convict or recovering addict get hired at an entry-level job and start the climb back to a decent life — amnesty and more immigration, or enforcement and less immigration?

“Which is more likely to persuade a teenager in the inner city to reject the lure of gang life and instead stick with honest employment — amnesty and more immigration, or enforcement and less immigration?”

Norman Matloff is a highly regarded professor and former chairman for the University of California, Davis, Affirmative Action Committee. Influenced by his childhood in predominantly Latino East Los Angeles, Matloff’s professional career has been devoted to helping minorities. He is married to an immigrant. During testimony before Congress, Matloff summarized his lengthy and detailed research into the destructive impact of illegal/legal immigration on minorities: “The adverse impacts are both economic and noneconomic in nature: increased job competition; lowered wages; reduced opportunities for entrepreneurs; reductions in quality of education and housing; increased exposure to disease.”

Monroe Anderson, a well-respected African-American columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, recently penned a column entitled “Immigration Hurts Blacks.” He describes the current Senate amnesty proposal this way: “so rich and rewarding — for the rich. Illegal immigration allows the rich to get cheaper and cheaper goods and services and the black working class and poor to get hustled and trickled-down on.”

A 2006 raid at a chicken processing plant in Stillmore resulted in an employer, Crider Inc., turning to the Georgia employment office for the first time in years. The result cast doubt on the long-standing claim “these are jobs Americans won’t do.”

More than 400 applicants came looking for work. Almost every new Crider employee is African-American. As elites in Washington seek to satisfy their corporate masters, while simultaneously attempting to purchase a new ethnic voting block, faithful public servants such as Fair of the Urban League must pick up the pieces of those left behind.

Perhaps we should all listen to his advice, “The interests of black Americans are clear: No amnesty, no guest workers, enforce the immigration law.”

• State Sen. Chip Rogers is a Republican from Woodstock. CONTACT SENATOR ROGERS here.

Immigration bill lacks area support in Senate
Chattanooga Times Free Press
By Herman Wang and Karina Gonzalez
Staff Writers

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate leaders planning to revive a comprehensive immigration reform bill today will have to do so without the support of the four senators from Tennessee and Georgia, who have made it clear they oppose it.The White House-backed bill faces a key vote today on whether the Senate will bring it back to the floor, with 60 votes needed, an uncertain prospect.

“I truly do not see any way that I’ll be supporting this bill,” said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. “I think the (Bush) administration, working with leadership, is trying to tally votes, and there will be a number of amendments that are coming forth. They understand that we will not be with them.”

Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., withdrew the bill June 7 after two weeks of debate generated no consensus on the number of amendments to attach. The legislation, dubbed the “Grand Compromise,” would provide a pathway to citizenship for some 12 million illegal immigrants already in the country while strengthening border security.

Oscar Valdez, a Mexico native who has lived in the United States for 13 years, said the Hispanic community is hoping for a bill that will allow immigrants to legalize their status. Mr. Valdez still is waiting for his green card after his father, a naturalized citizen, petitioned on his behalf 10 years ago.

“People are waiting; everyone is, those who have family and others for themselves,” Mr. Valdez said. “For me, there is no hope but to wait. I have been here for so long. I have a family and a life here. I’ve learned the language and the laws of this country, and I want to fully integrate.”

D.A. King, of the Dustin Inman Society, a Marietta, Ga.-based group that pushes for tighter control of the border and stricter enforcement of immigration law, said the proposal is another amnesty bill and that American citizens in Georgia are opposed to it.

“Of the thousands of Georgians that I have spoken to, virtually all regard the Bush-Kennedy legislation as a repeat of the amnesty of 1986,” Mr. King said in an e-mail. “I have heard from no one who is in favor of the bill, the lack of any committee hearing on it or the fact that the Georgia senators helped craft the legislation. They both would have been committing political suicide had they continued defending the ‘Grand Compromise’ on our border security.”

The version of the bill up for the cloture vote today includes a provision, agreed to by Senate leaders last week, that would boost funding for border security and workplace enforcement by $4.4 billion. It also will include some two dozen amendments, a compromise between Democratic leadership and Republican lawmakers, who had wanted significantly more to be considered.

Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, both R-Ga., had been among a bipartisan coalition that helped draft the original bill, but they since have backed off their support amid growing criticism from Republican constituents back home…more here.

Identification to be required for car tags

Gwinnett Daily Post
By Camie Young
Senior Writer
LAWRENCEVILLE — Voters aren’t the only ones who will need valid IDs this year.
Beginning July 1, the state is requiring first-time vehicle registrants to provide a valid Georgia driver’s license or identification card before a license plate will be issued.

Rep. Tom Rice said the idea came about from talks about stopping illegal immigration, but he said it could also keep people who don’t meet Georgia’s identification standards off the roads.
Rice, the Republican from Peachtree Corners who chairs the House Motor Vehicles Committee said some states have lower standards for issuing driver’s licenses, so a requirement for a Georgia ID ensures that the local benchmarks are met.

“We want them to get a Georgia driver’s license and honor the rules of the road,” he said, adding that he believes few people will have problems with the new law. “It’s hard to think of a case where somebody is not going to have a license or an ID card and want a car registration.”

According to a press release, all Gwinnett County tag offices will begin next month verifying legal residence in Gwinnett County before processing a vehicle registration.

New residents moving to Gwinnett from out of state are required to provide a valid Georgia driver’s license or Georgia ID card with the current Gwinnett County address before a license plate can be issued.

New residents moving to the area from another Georgia county must provide a valid Georgia driver’s license or Georgia ID card with the current Gwinnett County address, or a valid drivers license or a valid government issued photo ID and one of the following documents, dated within the last year, and in the vehicle owner’s name with the current Gwinnett County address: utility bill, lease/rental agreement, bank statement, closing papers or a voter registration card.

Current Gwinnett County residents who already have vehicles registered in Gwinnett and move within Gwinnett County may change addresses by telephone or e-mail. …more here.

Note from D.A.- PLEASE KEP CALLING MCCONNELL!

From Roy Beck in Washington.

DEAR FRIENDS,

Rosemary Jenks (our NumbersUSA director of government relations) just called me and said her team of lobbyists is reporting that the White House has dispatched officials at the highest level to “buy” votes.

She said Senate staffers are confirming that the Administration is offering various favors of all kinds to Senators who have publicly committed themselves to a NO on cloture but who might be willing to switch votes and to Senators who haven’t declared themselves yet.

“We’ll have a pretty good idea after the vote tomorrow which Senators sold,” Rosemary said.

Senate offices should have no question where their constituents stand — and that is the opposite of what the White House is buying.

Our date with destiny is Tuesday morning (tomorrow) at 11:30.

That is the schedule for dealing with two unrelated bills, including the cloture vote to allow the S. 1639 Kennedy/Bush Comprehensive Amnesty Bill back on the Senate floor.

Your NumbersUSA team of lobbyists — and our allied organizations and Senate staffers — feel that at this time we are 5 votes short of killing this monstrosity of a bill in the first round.

But those last five are proving to be extremely difficult votes to get. Constituency pressure is proving to be about the only thing that works — and it has worked remarkably well in places like Georgia, Texas and even beginning to work in Michigan.

The good news is that the No. 2 Democratic leader, Sen. Durbin (D-Ill.), has said he doesn’t believe he can get more than 37 of the majority party to vote for the amnesty. That means the Republican leader, Sen. McConnell (R-Ky.), must persuade 23 of the 49 Republicans to go against their base and support the amnesty. And McConnell himself still isn’t committing to a YES for the amnesty.

The pro-amnesty forces must get 60 Senators to vote YES tomorrow to keep the bill alive. The grassroots citizen army of people like you is the only thing that has gotten us this close to stopping the Kennedy/Bush plan.

D.A., it’s people like you, who have not been intimidated or bought off, who are saving our country, & you will be victorious. Thanks for your fine work.
best, L.R.

Jerry Gonzalez in Creative Loafing in May: “The immigrant community ( note from D.A. – Jerry means illegal aliens) is very fearful and anxious,” says Jerry Gonzalez, executive director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials. “People are selling their homes, liquidating their assets and emptying their bank accounts to ensure that they will be able to move on a moment’s notice.”

Gainesville (Georgia) TimesSunday, June 24, 2007

Georgia Anti-Invader Law: What’s going to change

…Opponents of illegal immigration see the spotlight on what is commonly called Senate Bill 529 as helpful. D.A. King, founder of the anti- illegal aliens Dustin Inman Society, said the law has made Georgia less hospitable to those living here without permission. — As for talk of any leaving the state, “It’s obviously having the effect that was intended,” King said. Read the entire story here.

STOP ENFORCING FEDERAL LAW….even if it is all political theatre!

Extensive list of some of the open borders/illegal alien lobby groups nationwide
( scroll down)

A college education for illegal aliens
By Kris Kobach
Washington Times
June 22, 2007

It’s no secret that the Senate immigration bill rewards 12-20 million illegal aliens with immediate amnesty. What is less well known is that the bill also allows illegal aliens to receive in-state tuition rates at public universities, discriminating against U.S. citizens from out of state and law-abiding foreign students.

These provisions are buried deep in the Senate bill. They are part of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act section.

The DREAM Act is a nightmare. It repeals a 1996 federal law that prohibits any state from offering in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens, unless the state also offers in-state tuition rates to all U.S. citizens. On top of that, the DREAM Act offers a fast track to U.S. citizenship for illegal aliens who attend college.

On its own, the DREAM Act never stood a chance of passing — even in the Senate. Every scientific opinion poll on the subject has shown over 70 percent opposition to giving in-state tuition benefits to illegal aliens.

Not surprisingly, the DREAM Act languished in committee for five years — until the opportunity arose to hitch it to the Senate’s “comprehensive” immigration bill of 2006. Now, Sen. Edward Kennedy and his allies have added it to this year’s amnesty bill, too. They know that the only way to slip such bad legislation past the American people is to bury it in a comprehensive bill.

To understand just what an insult to the rule of law the DREAM Act is, recall the events of the past 11 years.

In September 1996, in the landmark Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA), Congress prohibited states from giving in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens. Members of Congress evidently never imagined that some states might simply disobey federal law.

But that is precisely what happened. Beginning (predictably) with California and Texas, open-borders advocates in 10 states succeeded in passing legislation that openly violated federal law by offering in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens….more here

Click here to see flyer for amnesty march in Los Angeles today.