| Monday, March 27, 2006 |
| Somebody's gonna have to restrain Lou Dobbs... |
Democrats stand together, four Republicans (DeWine-OH, Brownback-KS, Graham-SC and Specter-PA) break ranks as the McCain-Kenney option clears the Senate Judiciary Committee. This is just the first round, folks. Let's see how far this bill makes it once it's out on the Senate Floor. Key points:
In: the Feinstein plan to permit up to 1.5 million "temporary" agricultural workers into the U.S. ...
In: a "path to citizenship" for the 11 million illegal aliens currently in the country. (courtesy of John McCain)...
In: stepped up border enforcement including a "virtual wall" across the southern border
In: more visas for nurses (we have a severe shortage,)
Out: criminal penalties for "Good Samaritan" religious groups and individuals who give aid and comfort to illegal migrants (the Durbin amendment)...
Unanswered: How many of the estimated 11 million undocumented workers in the U.S. want real citizenship, vs. how many simply want work that allows them to send money home to Mexico, where their loyalty remians? And what is the opportunity cost to U.S. workers (remember them?) whom it seems are being finally -- and permanently -- written out of jobs in construction, restaurants, lawncare, meat packing and other industries that used to quite commonly employ Americans (including agriculture, with its rather sordid history of worker exploitation)? If we're giving people de facto citizenship, shouldn't we check on that stuff first? And at what point do we become Saudi Arabia, or Western Europe, dependent on cheap, foreign labor that owes us nothing, but demands everything (in the form of services)? Just a question.
More on the bill from the AP:
Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., seeking re-election this fall in his border state, said the bill offered amnesty to illegal immigrants, and sought unsuccessfully to insert tougher provisions. He told fellow committee members that the economy would turn sour some day and Americans workers would want the jobs that now go to illegal immigrants. They will ask, "how could you have let this happen," he added. ...
...The most controversial provision would permit illegal aliens currently in the country to apply for citizenship without first having to return home, a process that would take at least six years or more. They would have to pay a fine, learn English, study American civics, demonstrate they had paid their taxes and take their place behind other applicants for citizenship, according to aides to Kennedy.
"Well over 60 percent of Americans in all the polls I see think it's OK to have temporary workers, but you do not have to make them citizens," said Kyl.
"We have a fundamental difference between the way you look at them and the way I look at them," Kennedy observed later.
Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain, a potential presidential contender who worked with Kennedy on the issue, told reporters the street demonstrations had made an impact. "All those people who were demonstrating are not here illegally. They are the children and grandchildren" of those who may have been, he said. So the 500,000 protesters win the day in the Senate committee, but there's still a long way to go, and Bil Frist is waiting in the cloakroom with a candlestick...
Related: A closer look at the various bills.
Online: Michelle Malkin and the gang are not happy, including with Dubya (what I'm wondering is, how much longer does John McCain get away with this stuff and remain the "GOP front runner" in 2008?)
The liberals at The Nation, on the other hand, likey-likey... so does Marc Cooper...
And they should be. The right can't win this one -- their base is already inflamed, and just the news of this bill will send them into a lather. The Hispanic activists are enmeshed with the Dems, and taking the Catholics with them. And comments like this and this will bring Dubya and Ken Mehlman's Hispanic courting gambit to a screetching halt, because at the end of the day, for many members of the GOP base, this is about economics, to be sure, but it's also partly about demographic/ethnic politics, and demographic politics never, ever, fafor the Republicans... Remind me again why the GOP brought this up? Oh yeah, nobody knows...
Previous:
Tags: Bush, Current Affairs, Politics, Immigration, Illegal Aliens, Illegal immigrants, Border Security, Republicans, John McCain |
posted by JReid @ 10:35 PM   |
|
|
|
|
