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McCain, Kennedy introduce immigration reform bill

Thread ID: 18224 | Posts: 3 | Started: 2005-05-13

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madrussian [OP]

2005-05-13 12:12 | User Profile

Some countries have national referendums to pass decisions. Wouldn't the majority of Americans vote for simply deporting the illegals? And who are those squatters trying to decide the future of the country against the will of the people?

[url]http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=584&e=6&u=/nm/20050512/pl_nm/congress_immigration_dc[/url]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sens. John McCain and Edward Kennedy teamed up on Thursday to introduce a bipartisan immigration reform bill that would allow some of the estimated 10-12 million illegal immigrants in the United States to get legal jobs and eventual citizenship.

McCain, an Arizona Republican, and Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, headed a list of lawmakers from both parties backing the bill, which reflects some of the immigration reform principles put forward by President Bush.

But the proposed legislation faces an uncertain future because of strong opposition to any concessions to illegal immigrants from a sizable group of Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives.

"For far too long, our nation's broken immigration laws have gone unreformed leaving Americans vulnerable. We can no longer afford to delay reform," McCain said.

Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Republican who would supports cracking down on illegal immigrants, said the bill offered amnesty to millions of people who had broken U.S. laws by entering the country illegally.

"There is a little more lipstick on this pig than there was before, but it's most certainly the same old pig," he said.

The proposal would allow illegal immigrants to apply for temporary work permits that could last for six years. They would have to clear criminal background checks, pass an English language test and pay a $2,000 fee to qualify.

At the end of the six years, they and their families could apply for permanent resident status, and five years later for citizenship.

The bill would also allow foreign citizens to apply for low-paid jobs that Americans do not want to do from outside the country. If the worker lost his job, he would have 60 days to find a new one or return home.

'ORDERLY AND COMPASSIONATE'

Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez (news, bio, voting record) of Illinois called the bill an "orderly, humane, compassionate immigration policy" that contained incentives for illegal immigrants to enter the legal economy while punishing them for entering the country illegally by forcing them to pay the $2,000.

Nobody knows exactly how many people are in the country illegally. The 2000 Census estimated the number at 8.7 million and said it was growing by half a million a year. Other authorities put the number higher.

Gutierrez said opponents of reform should recognize it was unrealistic to seek to deport the millions of illegal immigrants in the country. McCain said the economy would grind to a halt if anybody tried.

Kennedy said: "This bill does not provide a free pass to anyone. This bill does not give an automatic pardon to anyone. This bill does not put those who have been illegally here in the United States at the front of the line."

The bill, backed by several other senior lawmakers from both parties, would also strengthen controls along the U.S.-Mexico border and create a new electronic work authorization system.

Bush first introduced his guest worker proposal in January 2004 but until now it had not moved forward in Congress, where sentiment against illegal immigrants appears to be strengthening. This week, Congress passed legislation making it harder for immigrants to obtain drivers' licenses.

Howard Campbell, Jr.

2005-05-13 14:17 | User Profile

*Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Republican who would supports cracking down on illegal immigrants, said the bill offered amnesty to millions of people who had broken U.S. laws by entering the country illegally.

"There is a little more lipstick on this pig than there was before, but it's most certainly the same old pig," he said.*

Gotta love Tom!

Blond Knight

2005-05-13 20:23 | User Profile

[url]http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2005/05/zogby_poll_amer.php[/url]

Zogby Poll: Americans Fed Up With Illegal Aliens

A new opinion poll by Zogby International indicates Americans are hardly pleased with the Bush administration on the subject of illegal immigration.

The poll, cited on CNN’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight” program yesterday, noted a huge majority—81 percent—believes local and state police should help federal authorities enforce laws against illegal immigration. Only 14 percent disagreed.

Voters were also asked, “Do you support or oppose the Bush administration’s proposal to give millions of illegal aliens guest worker status and the opportunity to become citizens?” Only 35 percent gave their support, and 56 percent said no.

“A majority opposed illegal immigration,” pollster John Zogby told CNN. “In fact, when you combine those two terms, ‘illegal and immigration,’ it really conjures up a considerable amount of negatives. And, in fact, we find that it’s really across the board.”

According to the report, the greatest opponents of illegal immigration are Democrats, African-Americans, women and people with household income below $75,000, those with the most to lose in the job market.

When it came to the status of the nation’s borders, respondents were asked, “Do you agree or disagree that the federal government should deploy troops on the Mexican border as a temporary measure to control illegal immigration?” A clear majority—53 percent—agree, while 40 percent disagree.

“The Minuteman program highlighted the fact that we need more tighter border security,” Phil Kent of American Immigration Control Foundation told the network. “So I think these numbers again are good. It’s a good civics lesson for the American people. It shows our elected leaders that we want action.”

In summing up her report, CNN correspondent Lisa Sylvester noted, “So, while the public wants tougher borders, politicians are pushing to leave them open. A real disconnect.”

(Posted on May 10, 2005)

And some commentary on the above article from AMREN:

No secret why there is a major disconnect between American voters and the two major political parties on the issue of immigration. The Democrats haven't won the white vote since Lyndon Johnson's 1964 landslide so they wish to dilute the white vote and import Democratic voters. Furthermore, most Democrats despise the historic American nation. As for the Republicans, though they might throw an occasional bone to the Religious Right, essentially they are owned lock, stock and barrel by American business interests and the American business establishment wishes to use immigrants to drive down wages. Of course, what is astounding is the short-sightedness of the Republicans. Whatever is saved in lower wages will be exacted at a later date when the Left rides a Third World demographic wave to electoral dominance and confiscates much of the wealth of Republican businessmen through higher taxes.

Posted by Jack Aubrey at 4:38 PM on May 10

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The reason for the so-called "disconnect" between the will of the American people and the Republican leadership is because of Big Business' control of that party. The human tapeworms of Wall Street have made their own version of the Hitler-Stalin Pact with far-left and minority agitators to flood our country with non-White aliens. Big Business sees profits in the short term while Big Minority sees political takeover in the next generation.

Posted by fire eater at 4:45 AM on May 11

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The Democrats abandoned the working class about 30 years ago. That is what led to the "Reagan Democrats". But the Republicans were and remain the party of big business. In our broken two party system there's really no place for the ordinary working man to go.

The elites of this country want open borders. They pay for the politician's campaigns, and they get what they want.

The Wall Street Journal regularly calls for a Constitutional Amendment, "There shall be open borders." Now it seems to me that that's a rather bold experiment they're proposing and prudence demands that we try it out on a smaller scale first. After all, America is a big country so if open borders leads to disaster it will be disaster on a large scale. So I offer the following small change to the WSJ's proposal, and I'm sure the neocons on its editorial page will not object -- "Israel shall have open borders". Let's give this one a try, for, say, 50 years, and if at the end of that time Israelis agree that an open borders policy has been good for their country, then we'll try it for ours.

Posted by WR at 11:27 PM on May 12