The Senate last night passed President Bush's disastrous guest worker amnesty by a strange 66 to 33 vote. A majority of Republican Senators (31) voted against the amnesty provision. The measure passed, however, when 24 Republicans joined with Democrats to overrule the will of the Republican majority. Only two Democrats voted against the amnesty.
The measure effectively grants amnesty to every illegal alien in the country.
Supporters claim that it would grant amnesty only to the large majority of immigration aliens - those that have been here at least two years. In truth, however, it will grant amnesty to anyone who simply claims to have been here for two years, since it is virtually impossible to prove how long someone has been in the country illegally. The Senate bill will therefore allow illegal aliens to present old utility bills as both legal identification and proof off residency for the purpose of administering the amnesty.
Bill proponents also claim that immigration criminals will have to pay back taxes on their illegally earned incomes to be eligible for the amnesty. But of course the government has no means of determining how much an illegal worker has earned or owes in taxes. So again, they intend to simply rely on the word of the criminals in question when determining the amnesty granting "back" tax bill.
My psychic powers tell me that every illegal alien in the country will turn out to have been here for at least two years, and will report only negligible earnings for their lengthy stay. Amnesty applicants will be required to pay a "fine" of $2000 to be put on a glide path to citizenship. This fine will make every applicant immediately eligible for all government benefits at both the state and federal level and is far less than legal immigrants could expect to pay for ordinary lawyers’ bills and application fees. But of course, they followed the rules and thus deserve an appropriate punishment.
Upon legalization under the amnesty, all the 11 million to 20 million illegal aliens who could be expected to apply will become eligible to legally bring over their family members under family reunification rules. The amnesty will thus result in the largest increase in legal immigration in history. The prospect of amnesty has already caused a massive increase in illegal immigration as aliens flood over the border hoping to lay the groundwork for an amnesty application.
According to an impact estimate by Sen. Jeff Sessions' office these provisions and others in the Senate bill aimed at directly and massively increasing legal immigration will allow as many as 198 million additional immigrants into the country within 20 years. This is in addition to current levels of legal immigration, so that the total could go as high as 217.1 million immigrants within the next 20 years. The current native-born population of the entire United States is only 254 million (2000 census). Among children, immigrants and their children would become a majority of the population.
The Senate solution to illegal immigration is simply to make unlimited immigration legal.
Senators who opposed this chain reaction amnesty and voted to secure the borders are:
Allard (R-CO)
Allen (R-VA)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burns (R-MT)
Burr (R-NC)
Byrd (D-WV)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Dole (R-NC)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Lott (R-MS)
McConnell (R-KY)
Nelson (D-NE)
Roberts (R-KS)
Santorum (R-PA)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Talent (R-MO)
Thomas (R-WY)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Those who supported the President's plan to open the borders and amnesty immigration criminals are (Republicans joining with Democrats shown in bold):
Akaka (D-HI)
Alexander (R-TN)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Biden (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brownback (R-KS)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Carper (D-DE)
Chafee (R-RI)
Clinton (D-NY)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Conrad (D-ND)
Craig (R-ID)
Dayton (D-MN)
DeWine (R-OH)
Dodd (D-CT)
Domenici (R-NM)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Frist (R-TN)
Graham (R-SC)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Jeffords (I-VT)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Kohl (D-WI)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (D-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Obama (D-IL)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Sarbanes (D-MD)
Schumer (D-NY)
Smith (R-OR)
Snowe (R-ME)
Specter (R-PA)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Stevens (R-AK)
Sununu (R-NH)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (R-VA)
Wyden (D-OR)
The President will immediately sign the bill if it passes the House of Representatives. Your only chance to stop the amnesty rests in the House. You can contact your Representative by calling (202) 224-3121 to express your opposition to the Senate amnesty and all versions of amnesty.
You can contact any of the above senators to express your opinion on their vote by visiting our "No Amnesty" webpage.
