Senate Passes 'No Illegal Alien Left Behind' Bill
COMMENTLINES
There are a lot of things wrong with the bill passed in the Senate. I guess politicking Republicans signed off on the thing hoping the House would clean up the mess.
Oh well, it's just another example of the white American "guilt-trip" at work in the legislature.
Amnesty by any other name is still amnesty.
NEWSLINES
SEN. GRASSLEY'S TOP 10 FLAWS WITH THE IMMIGRATION REFORM BILL
1. $2,000 Fine -- Under the bill, an illegal alien can go from illegal to legal by paying a small fine of $2,000. Often, illegal aliens will pay more than five times this amount to a smuggler to get across the border. Also, the $2000 fine may not have to be paid until year eight, which allows the illegal alien to live, work, and play in the United States for years free from deportation. This imposes a financial burden on the American taxpayer for health, education, and infrastructure costs that aren’t reimbursed for five or ten years.
2. Taxes -- Under the bill, illegal aliens get an option to only have to pay three of their last five years in back taxes. Law-abiding American citizens do not have the option to pay some of their taxes. The bill would treat lawbreakers better than the American people. The bill also makes the IRS prove that illegal aliens have paid their back taxes. It will be impossible for the IRS to truly enforce this because they cannot audit every single person in this country.
3. Security Clearances in 90 days -- Under the bill, the Department of Homeland Security must perform background checks on illegal aliens in the United States. It also encourages the federal government to complete the background checks on 10 million illegal aliens in 90 days. This is a national security concern because Homeland Security will be pressured to complete these checks without doing a thorough job.
4. Work Requirements -- Under the bill, illegal aliens must prove they’ve worked in the United States for three of the last five years. It also says they have to work for six years after the date of enactment of the bill. However, there is no continuous work requirement for amnesty. They could work for 30 days, take off 30 days, work for 30 days. The bill also says that illegal aliens have to prove that they’ve worked in the United States for three of the last five years by showing IRS or Social Security records, or records maintained by federal, state, or local governments, employers, unions or day labor centers. However, the bill also allows illegal aliens to ask anybody to attest that they have been employed. This invites fraud, and the government cannot realistically investigate all these cases.
5. Confidentiality -- Under the bill, if an illegal alien applies for amnesty, the federal government cannot use information provided in the application for anything but adjudicating the petition. For example, if illegal aliens write in their applications that they are related to Osama Bin Laden, then our government cannot use that information. In fact, it says that the Secretary of Homeland Security can only share that information if someone requests it in writing. This provision severely handicaps national security and criminal investigators.
Also, if a federal agent does use information provided by an illegal alien in an application for amnesty the agent would be fined $10,000. This is five times more than the alien has to pay to get amnesty.
6. Social Security to illegal aliens -- Under the bill, illegal aliens are not prohibited from getting credit for the money they’ve put into the Social Security system if they’ve worked in the U.S. illegally. Illegal immigrants who paid Social Security taxes using a stolen Social Security Number did not do so with the expectation that they would ever qualify for Social Security benefits. (The Ensign amendment would have taken care of this, but it did not pass.)
7. Employers get a tax pardon for hiring illegal aliens -- Under the bill, employers of aliens applying for adjustment of status “shall not be subject to civil and criminal tax liability relating directly to the employment of such alien.” Businesses that hired illegal workers would now get off scott-free from paying the taxes that they owe the government. This encourages employers to violate our tax laws and not pay what they owe the federal government. In addition to not having to pay their taxes, employers are also off the hook for providing illegal aliens with records or evidence that they have worked in the U.S. The employer is not subject to civil and criminal liability for having employed illegal aliens in the past, or before enactment.
8. Family Members of H-2C Visa Holder need not be healthy -- Under the bill, spouses and children of H-2C visa holders are exempt from a requirement proving that they meet certain health standards. The visa holder is required to undergo a medical exam, but their family members are not which potentially puts Americans at risk.
9. Mandatory Departure isn’t really Mandatory -- Under the bill, the Secretary of Homeland Security “may grant” Deferred Mandatory Departure to illegal aliens in the 2-5 year category. The Secretary “may” also waive the departure requirement if it would create substantial hardship for the alien to leave.
10. No Interview Required -- Under the bill, illegal aliens in the 2nd tier who are required to leave the country can re-enter the United States on a visa. However, the bill does not require these individuals to be interviewed. The bill doesn’t give discretion to our consular offices to require an interview. The 9/11 hijackers weren’t subject to appear in person. Today, the State Department requires most applicants to submit to interviews, and waives them only for children and the elderly.
NEWSBYTES
Senate Approves Immigration Bill
(www.washingtonpost.com) -- The Senate yesterday approved legislation that would trigger the biggest changes to U.S. immigration policy in decades, by strengthening border security, establishing a guest-worker program, and providing the means for millions of illegal immigrants to stay in the country and possibly become citizens.
Senate Passes Landmark Immigration Bill
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senators are challenging House Republicans to give ground on their enforcement-only fix for the country's immigration problems and consider offering citizenship to millions of immigrants illegally in the U.S. Senate passage of its immigration bill by a 62-36 vote on Thursday sets...
U.S. Senate passes sweeping immigration overhaul
WASHINGTON, May 25 (Reuters) -- The U.S. Senate on Thursday easily passed an immigration overhaul that would give millions of illegal immigrants a chance to become American citizens, as supporters braced for a bruising battle with the House of Representatives.
Tags: border wall, Immigration, Mexico, illegal, Aliens, protest, United States, Congress, Senate
Global Tags: Washington DC, News and Politics, News, Politics, Current Events, Current Affairs, Life, Culture, Tension
posted by Steven Moyer at 8:53 AM
3 Comments:
I am "extremely upset" about the recent vote in the Senate granting citizenship to illegal aliens. I am signing a petition to President, in the hopes that if the House is so indifferent to the will of the American people, that the President will veto any such bill sent to him (although, since he started this whole charade, I doubt that will do any good). Here are only some of my thoughts on granting amnesty (call it what you will) to the millions of illegals in this country:
Our government has run amuck!
Given the opportunity I will do my best to vote out of office anyone who represents me who voted for this bill! And, the same goes for any Representative in the House!
What were our Senators thinking? On the one hand they have passed bills keeping illegals out and a bill to build a new
"fence." (I hope it's a 20' high, 10' thick concrete, titanium-reinforced "wall" that is sunk about 20' down in the ground...something that will REALLY slow down illegal immigrants...and not another puny chain fence that anyone could cut through or crawl over, or they're wasting our money!)
And, now in their vast wisdom, our Senators vote to allow millions of illegal alien minimum wage earners ("they take the jobs no American will take"--right?) to become citizens without even really holding them accountable for breaking a miriad of our laws. This, by the way, keeps down the minimum wage, as to increase it would cost far too much...but the rich people can "have it their way."
And, did these Senators we thought we could trust when we sent them to DC even give a thought to the drain on our sociey that these "unpopular citizens" will cause? They won't pay that much into Social Security, but they'll get benefits out, not only retirement benefits but disability benefits, too. And, what about our health system, which is all but broken now, without adding millions of people who can't pay their medical bills without government help? And, how about all the additional college expenses states will end up charging current citizens to pay for the costs of these "new citizens" who want to attend? (And, yes, some states are letting illegals into their community colleges, and letting out-of-state illegals pay in-state tuition. Can your kids do that?)
And, how did the Senate "possibly expect" the Office of Homeland Security to vet all of these millions of people in "90 days." That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of!
We have thousands...perhaps millions...of people who are standing in line trying to enter this country legally. What's going to dissuade them from just crossing the border now (remember the Canadian border's still wide open!), knowing that someday, our "oh, so generous" government will, once again, with the swipe of a pen, change their status from illegal to legal and give them, virtually free of charge, all the services this land has to offer (if there are any left!), with all of us paying for our government's "goodwill?"
Why can't our government understand that to sustain America as a viable and powerful government, we must make sure all who are welcomed as citizens are made to abide by our laws (which already the illegal aliens have not done), be made to speak fluent English, especially if they are in a service industry, and be able to fluently read, especially our signs that warn people what to do in case of an emergengy? There should not be one soul in this country who cannot speak and read English fluently! Those who cannot are unable to help their children or grandchildren or others learn these skills...skills necessary to be successful in this country. People who don't know English just drag our sociey down because so many parts of our government are placed in the position of having to change their laws to present documents or phone messages in many different foreign languages to be able to communicate with their constituents! This is ridiculous! This is America; those who become citizens here should speak English!!
People who are citizens should not set up separate "foreigh countries" within our borders (remember the Mexican flags being flown "over" the American flags during the recent marches?--to which county did those people show their "primary" loyalty? It sure wasn't America, and yet now, they are one third of the way home to being granted virtually "free"
American citizenship). Citizens of American should enter what was once called "the melting pot," not set up their own separate societies.
American citizens are made to swear alliegence to and are expected to be governed only by the laws of this land, not by Shira law or any other. So, anyone putting their religious laws or former country's laws above our own need to go home or to some other country that accepts their legal belief system. They definitely should not be granted American citizenship!
And, this is the tip of the iceberg on what is wrong with the Senate's vote!
Pat
This post was published in May 2006. I'm not sure how relevant the information is in Dec., 2007.
There is only measure which we can take and that is to innudate the House of Representatives, all of them, with a million emails stating the Americans are for legal work programs but are absolutely opposed to amnesty at any time, now or in the future. Congress has a website where you can get the email address of any member of Congress (Senate or House). LET'S GET THOSE EMAILS GOING. NOTHING WILL HAPPEN UNLESS WE SPEAK UP IN FORCE. TELL MCCAIN YOU ARE NOT VOTING FOR HIM BECAUSE OF THE IMMIGRATION AMNESTY, AND TELL OBAMA TO STICK WITH "NO AMNESTY. WORK PROGRAM..OK."
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