Senate Bill Has 400+ Waivers And Loopholes in Enforcement
“The Senate’s pending immigration bill includes roughly 400 exemptions, exceptions, waivers, determinations and grants of discretion. The bill’s complexity is forcing opponents and supporters to comb through its 844 pages before they can declare their conditional support or opposition to the high-stakes measure,” the Daily Caller writes.
“The complexity has already sparked GOP objections from Sen. Jeff Sessions and other Republicans who say they should be given more time to study and then explain the bill’s myriad complexities and loopholes to the public.”
ICE Union Leader Says Bill Doesn’t Help Enforcement
“While the authors of the newly released Senate immigration bill touted its multibillion dollar investment in border security, critics are seizing on what they describe as a major loophole — giving the government “discretion” to choose when to enforce immigration laws,” says FoxNews.com.
“The union representing Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents has long complained that the Obama administration has made their job harder by preventing agents from detaining and deporting select illegal immigrants. They had petitioned members of the so-called ‘Gang of Eight’ — the lawmakers writing the immigration bill — to address those concerns in the package.”
AFL-CIO Unhappy With “Compromise” Bill
The AFL-CIO is calling for changes to the Senate’s immigration bill, even as it also loudly endorses the bill’s multi-staged legalization measure. ‘The United States urgently needs a roadmap to citizenship for more than 11 million aspiring Americans. … Our cause is unstoppable. There will be a roadmap to citizenship in 2013,’ said the Wednesday statement from AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka. Trumka did, however, say the union has some objections to the bill, but did specify which sections he finds problematic,” the Daily Caller reports.
Debra J. Saunders – Why I Side With Rubio
“Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., may save the Republican Party in his push to pass the Gang of Eight bipartisan immigration package.
Let me be brutally honest about my position on the bill. I’ve opposed past efforts of this nature, because I fear that any amnesty bill — or ‘path to citizenship’ – will beget more amnesty bills. And that means that Washington is encouraging people to break the law,” says Debra J. Saunders.
“But I don’t see how the GOP prevails in national elections if Latino voters think that the party is anti-Latino and immigration bills have been a metric by which Latinos have judged the GOP. I want minorities to feel welcome in my party. I’d rather see Washington pass a Dream Act this year.”
Immigration Issue a “Rubik’s Cube” for GOP?
“While an immigration overhaul has drawn support from church groups, business, labor and even former opponents, there’s still deep opposition — mostly centered in the Republican Party. The last time a president tried to pass a comprehensive immigration overhaul was in 2007, and George W. Bush’s fellow Republicans in Congress killed his bill. Republican strategist Kevin Madden says a lot has changed since then — including the way the Republican Party is dealing with its own internal divisions,” NPR says.