Republicans Try To Derail Immigration Reform By Bringing ‘Piecemeal’ Amendments To DHS Bill
Republicans Try To Derail Immigration Reform By Bringing ‘Piecemeal’ Amendments To DHS Bill
Just last month, a bipartisan group of congressional leaders emerged from a White House meeting pledging to work together on reforming the nation’s immigration laws with one broad piece of legislation that would fix the broken immigration system once and for all. The meeting’s attendees seemed to agree that a “piecemeal” approach would be counterproductive and inefficient.
However, that didn’t stop a group of right-wing GOP lawmakers from continuing on what seems like a never-ending crusade to derail comprehensive immigration reform. Their latest attack came this week when Republican senators swamped the Department of Homeland Security $42.9 billion appropriations bill with a series of immigration enforcement-only amendments before comprehensive immigration reform could even hit the Senate floor. The bill passed yesterday evening, 84-6.
– Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) sponsored an amendment that would require 700 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border to be completed by the end of 2012. Concerns expressed by environmentalists and social activists that the border fence will unfairly target low-income landowners and harm the environment were brushed aside. The legislation passed Wednesday by a vote of 54-44, essentially bucking the Obama administration’s plans to cut border fence funds.
– Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) offered a separate amendment that would overturn DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano’s decision to rescind the Bush Administration’s troubling practice of sending Social Security “no-match” letters to employers with employees whose numbers don’t match the federal database. Labor unions claim the letters have been used by employers to threaten their workers and the ACLU has often pointed out that the system uses “notoriously incomplete and inaccurate Social Security databases to decide who is authorized to work.” The legislation passed yesterday morning.
– Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) proposed an amendment that would make E-verify, an error-ridden online verification program, mandatory and permanent. The amendment passed by voice vote on Wednesday, and Sen Check Schumer’s (D-NY) effort to table it was dismissed yesterday, 44-53.
– Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) also introduced an amendment that would allow employers to use E-verify to confirm the status of all their workers, not just the new hires that previous decisions had applied to. That wouldn’t be such a big problem if it weren’t for the possibility that E-verify’s error-rate could potentially lead to the accidental unemployment of hundreds of thousands of Americans in the midst of a recession. The amendment passed by voice vote last night.
While anti-immigrant groups are already toasting to the imminent failure of comprehensive immigration reform, immigration advocates remained calm and described this week’s actions as a “detour” and “political theater” that should be “taken with a grain of salt.” Either way, there’s an undeniable steep learning curve for conservative lawmakers who are slow to realize that they can no longer rely on an enforcement-only approach to immigration when the majority of their frustrated constituents want immigration laws overhauled inside and out. E-verify, no-match letters, and 700 miles of border fencing aren’t going to fix the immigration system. If anything, they further emphasize how broken it is.
12 Responses to “Republicans Try To Derail Immigration Reform By Bringing ‘Piecemeal’ Amendments To DHS Bill”
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Aren’t Republicans supposed to be all about small government? Here they are trying to spend their way out of U.S. immigration reform. Not only is this inhumane, but it hurts all U.S. citizens.
July 10th, 2009 at 3:29 pmI don’t think that its just the Republicans who are the problem, Kyle. Its all the members of Congress who are caving into the pressure to “look tough” on immigration and in the mean time pouring more taxpayer money into ridiculous measures like a “fence to nowhere” and a fatally flawed employment verification system. Enough with the political posturing, people. Let’s roll up our sleeves and create some real, substantive change: comprehensive immigration reform.
July 10th, 2009 at 3:39 pmAmerican Workers can breath a sigh of relief, as for once our politicians are listening to us all? Well! Not quite? They have instituted E-Verify, the illegal worker extraction process from the workplace? BUT TELL ME WHY IT DOESN’T COVER EVERYBODY WHO COLLECTS A PAYROLL CHECK? Not just the new arrival workers, but everybody who works for the company? American citizens and legal residents, don’t care about checking their identity, unless they have something to hide? But E-Verify will trap illegal trap people offering illegal Social Security Numbers and bogus ID papers. What’s significant is that E-Verify is not in stasis, but being upgraded, modified all the time. All irregularities can be checked out at the Social Security office. Not a good place where illegal workers would enter. Almost every law on the books that includes 287(g) for local enforcement is always weakened or even snuffed out by political conspirators.
If it really is being made MANDATORY for all federal employees and contractors? What reason are they arguing that it shouldn’t be MANDATORY in every business throughout America? Every patriotic employer should use the E-Verification process? Unfortunately it’s still voluntary for the public sector, which I am sure has been strongly influenced by US Chamber of Commerce, ACLU, Cato Institute and Council of Foreign Relations. Please don’t take my word for the ominous agendas of these organizations? Allow yourself to–GOOGLE– the rancid truth by surfing the Internet about these outfits? These are all anti-sovereignty, pro-illegal–CHEAP LABOR ENTITIES. They refuse any restrictions of any–REAL BORDER ENFORCEMENT?
The next step is to push our SENATORS AND CONGRESSMAN to implement rigid INTERIOR ENFORCEMENT. An army of E-Verify federal inspectors to make unannounced visits to Human Resources, stores, factories, industry, businesses with a general warrant to audit books around the country. This would certainly
be a parasite employers nightmare and hold their feet to the proverbial fire. Those who consider hiring illegal cheap labor will instantly condemn themselves to heavy fine, confiscation of business asset and even a prison term if caught with the undocumented labor.
Always the ACLU, the subversive La Raza (THE RACE) is up front with filing lawsuits, against any town that considers ordinances to stop illegal immigrants from settling there. These are–ALL OPEN BORDER ZEALOTS–Brought and paid for by corporate money. If we didn’t have sincere patriotic Senators like Sessions, E-Verify would have been tabled and hidden away from public view. Outside of the main Washington political elitists, very few listen to the voices of the American Worker who every day compete for jobs that foreign labor steal. My guess is the Democrats have allowed the authorization of a permanent E-Verify, knowing full well the Chuck Schumer Immigration Reform–BLANKET AMNESTY will make it worthless tool anyway?
Giving 13 to 20 million plus families who rely heavily on government benefits will bankrupt America, according to the estimate of 2.5 Trillion dollars, Robert Rector at the Heritage Foundation. Then their is the next tsunami of poor people expecting to benefit from a further Amnesty, waiting patiently in other impoverished societies around the earth. CALL YOUR POLITICIAN DEMANDING A MANDATED E-VERIFY, NO AMNESTY! 202-224-3121. Honest facts at NUMBERSUSA, CAPSWEB, AMERICANPATROL & FAIR. ANOTHER AMNESTY WILL LEAD TO IRREVERSIBLE OVERPOPULATION! IF YOU SEE SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY CALL ICE.
July 10th, 2009 at 3:58 pmGlad to see you know how to copy and paste, Brittancus. For those of you that aren’t familiar with Brittancus, he’s a well known nativist, who has nothing better to do that spread nativist misinformation online.
July 10th, 2009 at 4:01 pmrachel Says:
I don’t think that its just the Republicans who are the problem, Kyle. Its all the members of Congress who are caving into the pressure to “look tough” on immigration and in the mean time pouring more taxpayer money into ridiculous measures like a “fence to nowhere” and a fatally flawed employment verification system. Enough with the political posturing, people. Let’s roll up our sleeves and create some real, substantive change: comprehensive immigration reform.
Well put, rachel. Totally agree.
July 10th, 2009 at 4:14 pm@kyledeb
Yep, he spams my blogs all the time with the same exact screed. Moderators on this blog should beware.
July 10th, 2009 at 4:24 pmSing it:
July 10th, 2009 at 5:52 pmAs long as it’s Amnesty, it will go nowhere.
July 11th, 2009 at 3:04 pmJeepers, if my Social Security number is inconsistent with their dat
July 11th, 2009 at 11:13 pmbase, I’d want to know it.
Something should be done to fix the 2% error rate said to be in SocSec
data base.
I suspect a lot of the ‘errors’ are women who married without updating
their status. Or it didn’t get properly updated when they did it.
Aren’t we all sick and tired of the political posturing in congress? Didn’t these senators get the memo from the American people back in November? We want to see real, meaningful immigration reform.
These amendments attempt to enforce immigration laws without getting to the heart of the issue. Building a bigger wall at the U.S.-Mexico border is going to spend millions of taxpayer dollars but will not solve anything; reforming our immigration system will.
Forcing Federal contractors to implement a costly and inaccurate employment verification program isn’t going to solve anything. Instead, a mandatory E-Verify clause would force cash-strapped small businesses to make the painful decisions between losing government contracts and spending millions of dollars on a flawed and expensive employment verification system.
Meanwhile, look what happened to entire communities and local economies in places like Postville, IA. The overzealous enforcement by immigration authorities, much of it determined to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court by the way, resulted in removing hundreds of immigrant workers from the meatpacking plant. The company struggled to fill those jobs for over a year, even though the jobs paid more than minimum wage. The company went bankrupt, all the workers lost their jobs, immigrants and US citizens alike, and the whole town is going under. The enforcement of bad laws have hurt all the suppliers, truckers, mechanics, restaurants, local farmers and ranchers, and everyone else who relied on the interconnected, interdependant network of commerce that makes up a local economy.
Visit with the families that used to run the local diner, the local pizzeria, the local gas station, the hardware store. See what they think “enforcing current immigration laws,” did to their town, their livelihoods, their futures.
Political posturing by Congress appealing to the worst instincts of cynicism and fearmongering leads to bad public policy that hurts us all.
We need smart, practical, enlightened public policy making that takes a balanced approach to overhaul the current wreck of an immigration system.
With unemployment so high, what ha
July 13th, 2009 at 6:39 pmAren’t we all sick and tired of the political posturing in congress? Didn’t these senators get the memo from the American people back in November? We want to see real, meaningful immigration reform.
These amendments attempt to enforce immigration laws without getting to the heart of the issue. Building a bigger wall at the U.S.-Mexico border is going to spend millions of taxpayer dollars but will not solve anything; reforming our immigration system will.
Forcing Federal contractors to implement a costly and inaccurate employment verification program isn’t going to solve anything. Instead, a mandatory E-Verify clause would force cash-strapped small businesses to make the painful decisions between losing government contracts and spending millions of dollars on a flawed and expensive employment verification system.
Meanwhile, look what happened to entire communities and local economies in places like Postville, IA. The overzealous enforcement by immigration authorities, much of it determined to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court by the way, resulted in removing hundreds of immigrant workers from the meatpacking plant. The company struggled to fill those jobs for over a year, even though the jobs paid more than minimum wage. The company went bankrupt, all the workers lost their jobs, immigrants and US citizens alike, and the whole town is going under. The enforcement of bad laws have hurt all the suppliers, truckers, mechanics, restaurants, local farmers and ranchers, and everyone else who relied on the interconnected, interdependant network of commerce that makes up a local economy.
Visit with the families that used to run the local diner, the local pizzeria, the local gas station, the hardware store. See what they think “enforcing current immigration laws,” did to their town, their livelihoods, their futures.
Political posturing by Congress appealing to the worst instincts of cynicism and fearmongering leads to bad public policy that hurts us all.
We need smart, practical, enlightened public policy making that takes a balanced approach to overhaul the current wreck of an immigration system.
July 13th, 2009 at 6:40 pmThe age-old pesky U.S.-Mexico border problem has taxed the resources of both countries, led to long lists of injustices, and appears to be heading only for worse troubles in the future. Guess what? The border problem can never be solved. Why? Because the border IS the problem! It’s time for a paradigm change.
Never fear, a satisfying, comprehensive solution is within reach: the Megamerge Dissolution Solution. Simply dissolve the border along with the failed Mexican government, and megamerge the two countries under U.S. law, with mass free 2-way migration eventually equalizing the development and opportunities permanently, with justice and without racism, and without threatening U.S. sovereignty or basic principles.
Take time to read my groundbreaking proposal by Googling “Megamerge Dissolution Solution”, or click the url.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:09 am