thebullspeaks
Registered Users (C)
All,
Instead of opening multiple threads to share and discuss breaking news (good/bad - issues/reforms/key developments/bills/laws/misc), we can use a common thread to post whatever is relevant to our immigration (retrogression/backlogs etc) related issues.
Unfortunately, I will have to start with a discouraging news as of today :
UPDATE 1-Immigration bill fails test vote in U.S. Senate
Fri Apr 7, 2006 10:41 AM ET
(Updates throughout)
By Donna Smith
WASHINGTON, April 7 (Reuters) - A compromise bipartisan plan to overhaul the nation's immigration law failed on Friday on its first test vote in a sharply divided U.S. Senate.
Just a day after leaders from both parties agreed to the plan and predicted it would be widely embraced, new bickering shelved the measure amid complaints it would give amnesty to immigrants who illegally entered the country.
Backers of the bill fell 22 votes short of the 60 needed in the 100-member Senate to overcome procedural hurdles and move the bill forward.
The Senate action complicates and could ultimately doom efforts to pass comprehensive reform legislation in this election year. The deal had been struck in the face of opposition by some Republicans who said a plan to give some of the 11 million illegal immigrants a path to U.S. citizenship was amnesty and would reward them for breaking U.S. immigration laws.
Both sides blamed each other for the stalemate.
"A lot of people are asking what happened between the optimism of yesterday morning ... and this morning where it looks like everything has been obstructed, stonewalled," said Senate Majority Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican.
"This is no place for stonewalling or obstruction," said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada. "Yet that's where we are."
Lawmakers planned to leave Friday for a two-week break and it was unclear when the Senate would return to the legislation.
******************************************************
Senate vote bad news for immigration bill
By SUZANNE GAMBOA
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Senate sidetracked sweeping immigration legislation today, leaving in doubt prospects for passing a bill offering the hope of citizenship to millions of men, women and children living in the United States illegally.
A carefully crafted compromise that supporters had claimed could win an overwhelming majority received only 38 of the 60 votes necessary to protect it from weakening amendments by opponents.
Republicans were united in the 38-60 parliamentary vote but Democrats, who have insisted on no amendments, lost six votes from their members.
Democrats and Republicans were blaming each other today for the stalled progress of the bill, which would let millions of illegal immigrants remain in the United States. President Bush had prodded them to reach agreement.
Votes were scheduled to break the logjam, but both supporters and opponents of the bill said that's not likely to occur until Congress returns from a two-week spring recess, if then.
"It's not gone forward because there's a political advantage for Democrats not to have an immigration bill," said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa.
He said Democrats perceive a benefit in having only a GOP-written House bill that criminalizes being an illegal immigrant. That bill has prompted massive protests across the country, including a march by 500,000 people in Los Angeles last month.
Democrats blamed Republicans for insisting on amendments that would weaken a compromise that Senate leaders in both parties had celebrated Thursday.
"This opportunity is slipping through our hands like grains of sand," said assistant Senate Democratic leader Dick Durbin of Illinois.
Bush reiterated the importance of the immigration legislation while speaking at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast at a downtown hotel Friday.
"An immigration system that forces people into the shadows of our society, or leaves them prey to criminals is a system that needs to be changed," the president said. "I'm confident that we can change our immigration system in ways that secures our border, respects the rule of law, and, as importantly, upholds the decency of our country."
The election-year legislation is designed to enhance border security and regulate the flow of future temporary workers as well as affect the lives of illegal immigrants.
It separates illegal immigrants now in the U.S. into three categories.
Illegal immigrants here more than five years could work for six years and apply for legal permanent residency without having to leave the country. Those here two years to five years would have to go to border entry points sometime in next three years, but could immediately return as temporary workers. Those here less than two years would have to leave and wait in line for visas to return.
The bill also provides a new program for 1.5 million temporary agriculture industry workers over five years. It includes provisions requiring employers to verify they've hired legal workers and calls for a "virtual" fence of surveillance cameras, sensors and other technology to monitor the nearly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexican border.
Demonstrations in support of the compromise were planned for Monday across the nation, including one in Washington that organizers claimed would draw 100,000 people.
The acrimony in the Senate at Thursday night's end was a sharp contrast to the accolades 14 members of both parties traded just hours earlier when they announced their compromise.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist called it tragic "that we in all likelihood are not going to be able to address a problem that directly affects the American people."
The House has passed legislation limited to border security, but Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and other leaders have signaled their willingness in recent days to broaden the bill in compromise talks with the Senate.
But Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., said anything with what he called amnesty would not get agreement from a majority in the House.
The immigration debate has given the American public a glimpse of what may lay ahead in 2008 GOP presidential politics.
Frist, R-Tenn., a potential presidential candidate in 2008, sought to establish more conservative credentials when he initially backed a bill limited to border security. At the same time, he has repeatedly called for a comprehensive bill — adopting Bush's rhetoric — and involved himself in the fitful negotiations over the past several days.
———
On the Net:
Senate: http://senate.gov
Instead of opening multiple threads to share and discuss breaking news (good/bad - issues/reforms/key developments/bills/laws/misc), we can use a common thread to post whatever is relevant to our immigration (retrogression/backlogs etc) related issues.
Unfortunately, I will have to start with a discouraging news as of today :
UPDATE 1-Immigration bill fails test vote in U.S. Senate
Fri Apr 7, 2006 10:41 AM ET
(Updates throughout)
By Donna Smith
WASHINGTON, April 7 (Reuters) - A compromise bipartisan plan to overhaul the nation's immigration law failed on Friday on its first test vote in a sharply divided U.S. Senate.
Just a day after leaders from both parties agreed to the plan and predicted it would be widely embraced, new bickering shelved the measure amid complaints it would give amnesty to immigrants who illegally entered the country.
Backers of the bill fell 22 votes short of the 60 needed in the 100-member Senate to overcome procedural hurdles and move the bill forward.
The Senate action complicates and could ultimately doom efforts to pass comprehensive reform legislation in this election year. The deal had been struck in the face of opposition by some Republicans who said a plan to give some of the 11 million illegal immigrants a path to U.S. citizenship was amnesty and would reward them for breaking U.S. immigration laws.
Both sides blamed each other for the stalemate.
"A lot of people are asking what happened between the optimism of yesterday morning ... and this morning where it looks like everything has been obstructed, stonewalled," said Senate Majority Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican.
"This is no place for stonewalling or obstruction," said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada. "Yet that's where we are."
Lawmakers planned to leave Friday for a two-week break and it was unclear when the Senate would return to the legislation.
******************************************************
Senate vote bad news for immigration bill
By SUZANNE GAMBOA
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Senate sidetracked sweeping immigration legislation today, leaving in doubt prospects for passing a bill offering the hope of citizenship to millions of men, women and children living in the United States illegally.
A carefully crafted compromise that supporters had claimed could win an overwhelming majority received only 38 of the 60 votes necessary to protect it from weakening amendments by opponents.
Republicans were united in the 38-60 parliamentary vote but Democrats, who have insisted on no amendments, lost six votes from their members.
Democrats and Republicans were blaming each other today for the stalled progress of the bill, which would let millions of illegal immigrants remain in the United States. President Bush had prodded them to reach agreement.
Votes were scheduled to break the logjam, but both supporters and opponents of the bill said that's not likely to occur until Congress returns from a two-week spring recess, if then.
"It's not gone forward because there's a political advantage for Democrats not to have an immigration bill," said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa.
He said Democrats perceive a benefit in having only a GOP-written House bill that criminalizes being an illegal immigrant. That bill has prompted massive protests across the country, including a march by 500,000 people in Los Angeles last month.
Democrats blamed Republicans for insisting on amendments that would weaken a compromise that Senate leaders in both parties had celebrated Thursday.
"This opportunity is slipping through our hands like grains of sand," said assistant Senate Democratic leader Dick Durbin of Illinois.
Bush reiterated the importance of the immigration legislation while speaking at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast at a downtown hotel Friday.
"An immigration system that forces people into the shadows of our society, or leaves them prey to criminals is a system that needs to be changed," the president said. "I'm confident that we can change our immigration system in ways that secures our border, respects the rule of law, and, as importantly, upholds the decency of our country."
The election-year legislation is designed to enhance border security and regulate the flow of future temporary workers as well as affect the lives of illegal immigrants.
It separates illegal immigrants now in the U.S. into three categories.
Illegal immigrants here more than five years could work for six years and apply for legal permanent residency without having to leave the country. Those here two years to five years would have to go to border entry points sometime in next three years, but could immediately return as temporary workers. Those here less than two years would have to leave and wait in line for visas to return.
The bill also provides a new program for 1.5 million temporary agriculture industry workers over five years. It includes provisions requiring employers to verify they've hired legal workers and calls for a "virtual" fence of surveillance cameras, sensors and other technology to monitor the nearly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexican border.
Demonstrations in support of the compromise were planned for Monday across the nation, including one in Washington that organizers claimed would draw 100,000 people.
The acrimony in the Senate at Thursday night's end was a sharp contrast to the accolades 14 members of both parties traded just hours earlier when they announced their compromise.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist called it tragic "that we in all likelihood are not going to be able to address a problem that directly affects the American people."
The House has passed legislation limited to border security, but Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and other leaders have signaled their willingness in recent days to broaden the bill in compromise talks with the Senate.
But Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., said anything with what he called amnesty would not get agreement from a majority in the House.
The immigration debate has given the American public a glimpse of what may lay ahead in 2008 GOP presidential politics.
Frist, R-Tenn., a potential presidential candidate in 2008, sought to establish more conservative credentials when he initially backed a bill limited to border security. At the same time, he has repeatedly called for a comprehensive bill — adopting Bush's rhetoric — and involved himself in the fitful negotiations over the past several days.
———
On the Net:
Senate: http://senate.gov