“The [border]amendment, from Republican Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee and John Hoeven of North Dakota, cleared a procedural vote in the Senate 67-27. Fifteen Republicans voted in favor of cloture, and no Democrats broke from their party to oppose the measure,” Politico reported.
Another big vote is coming on Wednesday, when the Senate will vote on closing debate on the overall amnesty bill. “The broad Corker-Hoeven compromise is likely the last major change to the immigration bill. Reid filed cloture on the overall Gang of Eight bill Monday afternoon, which sets up another procedural vote for Wednesday,” Politico explains.
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S.744 is another “lets pass it to find out what’s in it” bill designed to overwhelm opponents and pass without real debate. What a lousy way to run a “free” country. The American people would trust the Senate more if they’d focused on security measures first instead of breathlessly pushing for what is, in fact, an amnesty for people who have often committed identity fraud and at least have broken immigration laws to work here.
I’ve said for a long time that with the proper preconditions, including e-Verify and a real accounting of domestic labor, there would be room for revamping the guest worker visa program to cover U.S. business labor needs. I’m a businessman myself and I’m certainly not trying to fight legitimate business interests. But when the CBO predicts lower wages and higher unemployment, the hidden agenda is clear.
What it appears we have in S.744 is a 1,200 page bill with loopholes to avoid enforcement and, most egregiously, a path to citizenship for people who came here illegally and who will most certainly vote to the left of the Republicans who want to give them citizenship. Legalization without citizenship would be a more politically palatable approach, and we ought to end birthright citizenship, too, if we’re ramping up guest worker visas.
I really want to like Senator Rubio. When you hear him talk, he sounds reasonable, and I agree with him that we need to shift towards a skill-based immigration system, but then you look into the bill and see he’s not presenting the whole picture. And then you see how hard the Gang of 8 is trying to shut down debate. The whole, sordid display of power politics has me deeply skeptical of my government. He needs to understand that his family fled Cuban communism for a reason, and if he pushes for an exponential rise in immigration, the likely outcome will be a politically unstable country. It’s as if he’s importing the power politics culture that he was fleeing.