Well, it has become blatantly obvious that the RINOs (Republicans in Name Only, to borrow a phrase from Dan Patrick) in the U.S. Senate have completely abandoned any pretense of having a spine where illegal immigration is concerned. As you probably have heard by now, the Senate passed their version of immigration ‘reform’ yesterday by a vote of 62 – 36, a bill that I’ve heard referred (quite aptly, I might add) to as the “No Illegal Immigrant Left Behind Act”.
This sets up a major showdown with the House of Representatives in the next few weeks as the conference committee attempts to work out a compromise in this Mexican standoff (sorry, I couldn’t resist). I will acknowledge with appreciation that our two Texas Senators – Hutchison and Cornyn – both voted against this lottery ticket.
Some highlights and lowlights of the Senate bill (along with Levander’s smarmy commentary) include:
- 370 miles of fence to be constructed along the US/Mexico border (by my math, that’s about 19% of the border length – yeah, that should do the trick)
- Social Security benefits ‘earned’ while working here illegally to be paid back when the illegal returns to the home country (so the message here apparently is that if you really want your Social Security benefits, you should move to Mexico, take up citizenship and return to the US illegally to work. Beautiful.)
- Naming English as our official language (I’ll believe it when I see English-only election ballots and clerks speaking only English when I go to the DPS office to get my license renewed)
- An annual limit on total immigrants, including dependants, of 650,000 (if the verification mechanism is impotent, then why bother setting limits? This is what we did with the 1986 immigration ‘reform’ bill – we just didn’t bother to enforce the law)
- A requirement to ‘discuss’ border fencing with Mexico before construction begins (because we all know that it’s only right that we be inclusive, open and sensitive to the needs of a bordering nation that has habitually violated our territorial sovereignty and encouraged their citizens to do the same)
- “Proof” of residency (so that you can show that you’ve been here more than five years, and consequently go to the head of the amnesty line) may be satisfied by a sworn affidavit (yes, I am completely serious)
- Illegals will be able to pay in-state tuition when they send their kids to college (if you are an out-of-state US citizen, well – it sucks to be you. Pay up.)
The thing that really burns me is that Senate RINOs and the Bush White House are playing the line of “some bill is better than no bill.” I call bull on that. An election is coming up in November, and the conservatives that elected George W. Bush and delivered him both houses of Congress will not be happy about this. It’s clear to me that Bush has decided to mail in his second term, but I would think that since neither he nor Cheney will be running in 2008 certainly someone (anyone) in the Senate would try to stake out the conservative territory. This has become a bill supported by Democrats (big surprise – they are the party of taxpayer-funded handouts) and RINOs composed of liberal Republicans (Snowe, Chaffee, McCain, etc.) and nominal Republicans who have lost the courage to say no to a mediocre bill. There are way too many Republicans that have agreed to support amnesty, and I personally believe that convictions are more important than political triangulation and signing your name to crap for the sake of a 'moral victory'.
Ultimately the House will have to play the role of racist, heartless, insensitive SOBs and kill this piece of garbage. There is nothing objectionable about securing the border first and working out a guest worker / immigration reform program afterward. To the contrary, it’s the only rational, logical and sane thing to do, and I hope they have the courage to stand in and kill this program. Sack up, fellas.
