Mark My Words - commentary on news, politics, religion, philosophy, science and social issues

The Bill in Congress will obviously create incredibly huge changes in our country, with much controversy over how much disaster or benefit will be the result. Yet, the original Senate intent was to vote this through in less than a week, bypassing the normal legislative process. Fortunately, public outcry forced the vote to be moved after the Memorial Day holiday and gave more time for Senators to propose amendments. For such a complicated bill, currently near 400 pages, with such far reaching consequences, this is still hardly enough time to have serious debate and for citizens (legal) to get informed and contact their Senators

In talking to friends, I've noticed that while some do not support what in fact the bill will do, they haven't bothered to contact Congress. It really isn't that difficult. While it did take me two days, I was able to get through on the Capitol Hill switchboard (202) 224-3121 and then connected to my Senators, Richard Lugar (R) and Evan Bayh (D). I was able to talk to a staffer for Lugar and left a voice mail for Even Bayh. I'm going to follow up with an email to both as well.

Unfortunately for Lugar, my taking two days to get through resulted in my finding out how he voted on several amendments, rather than my having to ask if he supported them or not. That question probably would have gotten no answer anyway, as I asked the staffer why Lugar had not supported the Coleman amendment and her response was that we don't have the latest information, we're just taking down whether or not people support the Immigration Bill. Great, there is only one good answer I could accept for that and judging from Lugar's voting record thus far on this bill, ie 100% with Senator Kennedy, the odds of that good reason being on his mind are next to nill.

Basically, the Coleman amendment encouraged local law enforcement to actually enforce Federal immigration law and work within the current process and cooperate with Federal agents in reporting immigration law violations. Why is that needed you may ask? Ever hear of sanctuary cities or local law enforcement that act in a way that create defacto sanctuary cities?

As Captain Ed said of the bill:

Coleman wants to close the loophole various cities opened in the 1996 immigration bill that allows them to ignore the illegal status of people arrested by their law enforcement agencies

[...]

It's time to end the "sanctuary city" phenomenon, especially since this compromise purports to clamp down on illegal immigration -- a claim that its details don't support very well at all. If the compromise fails, Coleman should introduce this as a free-standing bill in this session of Congress to demand that cities quit hiding criminals from the ICE.

But the Senate helped by several Republicans, decided hiding criminals from the Feds was just fine and dandy. You can see how your Senator voted here.

As to the only answer I would accept for voting against that amendment, it would be that they were putting together an amendment with more teeth. Considering the people that Lugar voted with, I have no reason to think that was their intent.

There appears to be no movement on another important and necessary amendment that Captain Ed mentions in that post.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee’s Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship subcommittee, on Wednesday introduced an amendment to the immigration bill to close a gaping loophole in the bill that will ensure the following individuals are either permanently barred from the United States or prohibited from getting any immigration benefit: members of terrorist-related organizations, known gang members, sex offenders, alien smugglers who use firearms and felony drunk drivers.

If you've read the immigration bill before Congress, you know that all one has to do is renounce gang affiliation and *presto* they get legality in this country. I guess our government is hoping they don't have their fingers crossed when they sign the renunciation. After all, people who've broken numerous laws, as well as, those governing our border and have been involved in violent gangs, would never ever ever think of lying on a government form. Nah, that will never happen. Fortunately, my regular readers are smarter than most Senators, and wont fall for that.

If you've heard the talking points from your Senator regarding background checks, or that the bill doesn't prevent later investigation, consider that we currently have around 600,000 illegal aliens, that have orders for deportation, that we can't find. Even more disturbing is that the current system encourages speed over thorough checks, and it's beyond foolishness to expect that to change for the better when the system becomes overloaded even more, should this bill pass into law. Debbie Schlussel has several emails here, from workers in the relevant agencies that create a very disturbing picture of what we can actually expect to happen. I'll provide just a few excerpts, read the entire post.

1) Temporary Worker Program (TWP) aliens will NOT be checked against the most basic databases--so we have no way of knowing who these aliens are (they can give whatever name they want to give and it must be accepted at face value) and whether they are terrorists or criminals. DHS officials at Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) say the TWP applicants will NOT be checked against the TECS (The Enforcement Communication System) or IBIS (InterAgency Border Inspection System) databases (IBIS is part of TECS). Therefore, it is a certainty that many Islamic terrorists and hardened criminals will have a golden ticket into America.

2) Currently, CIS officials are "encouraging" all immigration and citizenship application adjudicators to approve 10 applicants per hour. That means no more than 6 minutes per applicant is spent checking who they are, CURRENTLY. Imagine what will happen under this new Amnesty Bill when over 100,000 people per day must be processed (and their applications are being farmed out to private companies like the one that approved the 9/11 hijackers' visas, after 9/11). Yup, CIS chief Emilio T. Gonzalez--who is too busy giving himself awards along with Michael Chertoff--is forcing employees to rubber-stamp through citizenship applications.
Think that'll change when 30 million new applications (when all family members end up here) come into the mix? Think again.

The question remains though, will enough people contact their Senators, so that this pathetic bill will be stopped? Sitting back, thinking everyone else will be doing that, so you don't have to do anything would be a serious mistake. The pro-illegal/amnesty crowd is highly organized and well-funded as Michelle Malkin reports here.

The hotline is paid for by something called the Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform and it’s being blasted to pro-open borders groups all over the country. The hotline gives its callers access to their senators that average Joes don’t have.

Read her entire post, you'll find it quite interesting who's behind this organized effort and the various groups involved.

It's time we at least make phone calls, make our voices heard, in fact it's past time. Follow through with email if you think they're only taking down yes or no on support for the bill. Let them know you've had enough. We've been lucky to have perhaps another week on this. We need to continue making our voices heard, loud and clear.

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Previous posts:

Illegal aliens - the current bill
Illegal aliens

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