Cherokee Tribune

June 5, 2013

OPINION

D.A. King
columnist

Will Georgia’s U.S. senators vote ‘yes’ on amnesty-again?

U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) says he is not hearing from many Georgians regarding the Senate amnesty bill.

This sad fact is easily explained. Most GOP voters simply make the assumption that both of Georgia’s Republican senators are automatic “Nay” votes on the now 1,000-page monster legalization scam.

Trusting conservatives assume that because New York Sen. Chuck Schumer is the bill’s sponsor (then-Congressman Schumer was key in the 1986 amnesty debacle) and because it is being pushed by the Alinskyite Community Organizer-in-Chief Barack Obama, there is no need for concern about how the two GOP senators will vote.

This is a very unsafe assumption.

Isakson and Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) had a hand in writing the last amnesty try in 2007. They dropped it because of withering negative public pressure. The Wall Street Journal reports that Isakson was receiving 2,000 calls a day then but only about 100 calls a day on amnesty so far this year.

From reading past press releases and statements from Isakson and Chambliss, there is good reason for the “of-course-they-will-vote-no” assumptions. And believing they will continue the struggle to protect American workers.

Example? Here is one from a February 2010 joint press release (“Isakson, Chambliss: Improving Immigration Laws Will Help Unemployment”) illustrating both senators’ recognition of immigration’s direct relation to American unemployment. It includes a letter to the president of the Senate urging enforcement of immigration laws. “Isakson and Chambliss believe the millions of workers who are in the United States illegally are only exacerbating the unfair competition American workers currently face as they struggle to find jobs” they wrote in that election year.

A November 2009 missive to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano strongly criticized her comments then that legalizing millions of undocumented individuals would somehow benefit the American economy. The Isakson-Chambliss letter said: “With all due respect, legalizing those who have no legal right to be in the United States will not be a “boon” to American workers. Rather, it would only exacerbate the unfair competition American workers currently face as they struggle to find jobs.”

In the spring of 2008, the Democrats tried to include legalization for some illegal aliens in an unrelated bill. Both senators spoke loudly against what they recognized as amnesty with another public statement: (“Isakson, Chambliss Praise Senate’s Rejection of Amnesty Provision in Emergency War Supplemental Bill” May, 2008) “U.S. Sens. Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss today praised the Senate’s refusal to include an amnesty provision in the emergency war supplemental bill. Language that would have granted legal status to over 1 million illegal agriculture workers and their families was stripped … from the spending bill for troops … Isakson and Chambliss earlier this week had urged the Democratic leader to remove the amnesty provision from the bill.”

But last month Politico described Chambliss and Isakson as Republican senators “who could be swayed” to a yes vote on the Schumer Rubio amnesty. It quotes both Georgia senators. Chambliss said the bill includes “some good basic principles” and “not deal killers I see, right now.” Isakson revealed he was open to the bill. “There’s not a red flag but not a green one either,” Isakson said.

Are we seeing immigration “evolution”?

“The key is (Sen. Marco) Rubio,” said the executive director of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles. “Without Rubio, this bill would not get anywhere with Republicans. He gives them the cover.”

On his Senate website, Isakson makes clear his official position on amnesty: “As I have stated in the past, when it comes to illegal immigration, it is absolutely critical to our state and to this nation that we first secure the borders, honor those who have come here legally by not offering amnesty, and restore credibility to our broken immigration system.”

Despite the hype, the ruse being promoted by Rubio does none of the above.

Georgians who care about the American worker, and value any pretext of ever seeing real border security and immigration enforcement should contact both Georgia senators to ask about today’s position on Schumer’s amnesty legislation.

And, they should remember the broken promises of the 1986 amnesty.

D.A. King is president of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society and a nationally recognized authority on illegal immigration. On the Web: www.TheDustinInmanSociety.org. Twitter: @DAKDIS

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