WASHINGTON, June 26, 2007
Immigration Bill Passes Key Senate Test
Senators Vote To Revive Stalled Measure To Legalize Millions Of Illegal Immigrants
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Play CBS Video Video Bush On Immigration Reform CBS News RAW: At a Washington press conference, President Bush spoke about keeping concerns over security and the economy in check through immigration reform.
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(CBS/AP)
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Interactive Immigration And Naturalization Who's coming to America? Find out what's being done to screen for terrorists and take a citizenship quiz.
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Photo Essay Immigration Rallies Demonstrators demand path to citizenship for estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.
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News Tools Immigration Reform Plan President Bush lays out his vision for comprehensive immigration reform.
President Bush said the bill offered a "historic opportunity for Congress to act," and appeared optimistic about its passage by week's end.
The pivotal test-vote was 64-35 to revive the divisive legislation.
CBS News correspondent Bob Fuss reports the bill still faces big obstacles. The president is pushing hard for it, but most of the opposition rests with other Republicans who don't want to allow illegal immigrants to gain legal status and eventual citizenship.
Supporters needed 60 votes to scale procedural hurdles and return to the bill. A similar test-vote earlier this month found just 45 supporters, only seven of them Republicans. This time, 24 Republicans joined 39 Democrats and independent Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, to back moving ahead with the bill. Opposing the move were 25 Republicans, nine Democrats and independent Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., an architect of the bill, said he was proud of the vote, calling it "a major step forward for our national security, for our economy, and for our humanity."
"We did the right thing today because we know the American people sent us here to act on our most urgent problems. We know they will not stand for small political factions getting in the way," Kennedy said in a statement following the vote.
Tuesday's outcome was far from conclusive, however. The measure still must overcome another make-or-break vote as early as Thursday that will also require the backing of 60 senators. And there is no guarantee that it will ultimately attract even the simple majority it needs to pass.
The Senate was preparing to begin voting as early as Tuesday afternoon on some two dozen amendments that have the potential to either sap its support or draw new backers.
Republicans and Democrats alike are deeply conflicted over the measure, which also creates a temporary worker program, strengthens border security and institutes a new system for weeding out illegal immigrants from workplaces.
Mr. Bush has mounted an unusually personal effort to defuse Republican opposition to the bill, appearing at a Senate party lunch earlier this month and dispatching two Cabinet secretaries to take up near-constant residence on Capitol Hill to push the compromise.
He called the measure a deal worthy of support. "In a good piece of legislation like this, and a difficult piece of legislation like this, one side doesn't get everything they want," he told business leaders and representatives of religious, Hispanic and agricultural communities earlier Tuesday. "It's a careful compromise."
The vote suggested that key senators and White House officials had succeeded — at least for now — in bargaining with skeptical lawmakers for a second chance to pass the bill. Several senators who have been promised votes on their amendments, including Sens. Kit Bond, R-Mo., Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., Norm Coleman, R-Mo., Pete Domenici, R-N.M., John Ensign, R-Nev., and Jim Webb, D-Va., switched their votes to support moving ahead with the measure.
Still, after a chaotic several weeks in which the legislation survived several near-death experiences, it remained buffeted by intraparty squabbles.
As senators were preparing for the showdown vote Tuesday morning, House Republicans meeting privately on the other side of the Capitol were plotting to register their opposition through a party resolution. The measure never saw a vote for procedural reasons, but an attempt to kill it failed overwhelmingly, signaling deep GOP skepticism.
"It's clear there's a large number of the House Republicans who have serious concerns with the Senate bill," said Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, the minority leader.
Several of the Republican amendments slated for upcoming Senate votes would make the bill tougher on unlawful immigrants, while those by Democrats would make it easier on those seeking to immigrate legally based solely on family ties.
Particularly worrisome to supporters, including the Bush administration, is a bipartisan amendment by Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Max Baucus, D-Mont., that would change the bill's new program for weeding out illegal employees from U.S. workplaces.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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- I'll vote against my Senators and Congressman if they vote for this Traitorous piece of Illegal Legislation, and work to have those from other States removed, regardless of Party. This is the biggest Travesty to the American people since Bushco. Criminals Legalizing Crime for Criminals.
Our Representatives are almost all bought and paid for $2 ******.
Posted by veteran71 at 09:19 PM : Jun 27, 2007
Senate Kills Return-Home Amendment
The Senate defeated a Republican plan to require illegal immigrants to return home before applying for lawful status in the U.S. A Democratic bid to limit legalization to those who've been in the U.S. for four years was also turned back. More...
Democrats kill one part, Republicans kill the other as the shell game continues. The puppets in Washington will do what they%u2019re told and it%u2019s that simple the American citizens are dammed. - Reply to this comment
- It's not illegal for them to stand in front of home depot.
Posted by penskeone at 10:09 PM : Jun 26, 2007
Hey dumb@ss, THEY ARE HERE ILLEGALLY. NO MATTER WHERE THEY STAND, IF THEY ARE IN AMERICA ILLEGALLY THEY ARE CRIMINALS. - Reply to this comment
- They are now WATERING DOWN
THE ENFORCEMENT PROVISIONS in the
IMMIGRATION BILL
Senate Kills Return-Home Amendment
GOP Plan Would Have Forced Illegal Immigrants To Return Home To Qualify For Legal Status
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2
007/06/27/politics/main2988680.shtml
Posted by USAwatchman
Senate Kills Return-Home Amendment
The Senate defeated a Republican plan to require illegal immigrants to return home before applying for lawful status in the U.S. A Democratic bid to limit legalization to those who've been in the U.S. for four years was also turned back. More...
Democrats kill one part, Republicans kill the other as the shell game continues. The puppets in Washington will do what they%u2019re told and it%u2019s that simple the American citizens are dammed. - Reply to this comment
- They are now WATERING DOWN
THE ENFORCEMENT PROVISIONS in the
IMMIGRATION BILL
Senate Kills Return-Home Amendment
GOP Plan Would Have Forced Illegal Immigrants To Return Home To Qualify For Legal Status
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/06/27/politics/main2988680.shtml - Reply to this comment
- Dude, totally. Actually I picked up a couple of illegals (at home depot) to kill a bee a hive and help me re-stucco up a wall. They did the Job in 6 hours for cheap! I cannot complain.
Posted by penskeone at 09:33 PM : Jun 26, 2007
+ report abuse
They don't make enough? They will after they are illegal! Some make more than you. I payed the guys at home depot 200 bucks each for one Day! Illegals are not drowning in Debt like us Americans? Credit Cards/ Car payments/ 30 year mortgages etc. Most of them pay cash in advance for hospital visits.
Posted by penskeone at 09:50 PM : Jun 26, 2007
It's illegal to hire illegals? I can always say that I never "knew" they were illegal. It's not illegal for them to stand in front of home depot.
Posted by penskeone at 10:09 PM : Jun 26, 2007
Let's pass this Bill! Legalize these soon to be citizens.
Posted by penskeone at 03:04 PM : Jun 27, 2007
Say no to mass amnesty. No mass to mass illegal alien amnesty.
Why this bill must not pass, pro mass amnesty supporters like penskeone, will always want and try to take more it's part of their gene pool. - Reply to this comment
- Most of them pay cash in advance for hospital visits.
Posted by penskeone at 09:50 PM : Jun 26, 2007
01/24/03 - Illegal Aliens: The Health Cost DimensionThe Florida Hospital Association surveyed 28 hospitals and found that health care for illegal aliens totaled at least $40 million in 2002. ...
Care for illegal immigrants cost more than $22 million - TopixDALLAS Dallas County officials say medical care provided to illegal immigrants at Parkland Memorial Hospital cost more than 22 million dollars million this ...
Why are taxpapers providing hospital care for illegal aliens ...A Jamaican illegal spent 17 months under care at the same hospital. ... of Congress are trying to hit the taxpayers with even more costs for illegal aliens. ...
Border town hospitals straddle care and costs - Second Opinion ...Illegal immigrants part of the growing burden in health care ... That cost is one of the reasons the hospital had to close several of its services, ...
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17760618/ - 54k -
Disproportionate costs of illegal immigrationStudy shows New Mexico residents pay disproportionate costs of illegal ... but doesn't cover ambulance service or hospital costs, Rubaii-Barrett said. ...
www.nmsu.edu/~ucomm/Releases/2001/F
eb2001/immigrnt.html - 8k - Reply to this comment
- ENFORCE OUR CURRENT LAWS
AND IMPEACH BUSH
AND HIS GANG OF CRIMINALS - Reply to this comment
- Let's pass this Bill! Legalize these soon to be citizens. Let's do what right!
No To Amnesty, Yes to a Comprehensive Reform Bill! - Reply to this comment
- We must give amnesty to millions and millions of illegal immigrants so we can recruit them into the military.
It's obvious to me.
This way we can fight many more wars for many more years to come and the militaryindustrial complex will remain happy. Posted by GunOwnerDan at 12:42 PM : Jun 27, 2007
Please stop. THINK. It really is not as painful as people say. Illegals are already allowed into the military and national guard, they can even get on border control. In exchange for their service, they are fast tracked to citizenship once their stint is up. This has been the policy since 2004--where have YOU been?
They don't need them for the military. They want them for the cheap labor. They really do. and things will be great unless we have a recession and/or depression and Americans desperately start looking for any job to save their lives and homes. then there will be a little problem, a 12 to 20 million new people problem. - Reply to this comment
- I oppose the Senate immigration deal. The more you debate, the more flaws we find. It is fatally flawed. My view is "Keep it simple stupid". In fact it is "the border stupid" Shut the border...use the Israeli Wall for the model. Name the wall after an American Hero like Congressman Davy Crockett who died defending the wall of freedom at the Alamo,and had more guts that the idiots in the Senate today. As a medical doctor I am outraged by the wantonness and disregard for protecting the American People and throwing rewards to criminals giving them a path to citizenship, even felons. Great guys all we need is Mexican perverts, murderers, rapists, armed robbers as "legal citizens" It this what the idiot senators mean by bringing them out of the shadows, as Senator Reid said recently. Have you ever noticed that neither he or Kennedy cast a shadow, and this is due to poverty of substance and the absences of any calcium in their backbones. It is sickening to listen to the drunken Senator Kennedy singing spanish songs, obviously inebrieated. He and Bush need the 12 step program again. Kennedy needs to be in a nursing home.
- Reply to this comment
- Several senators who have been promised votes on their amendments, including Sens. Kit Bond, R-Mo., Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., Norm Coleman, R-Mo., Pete Domenici, R-N.M., John Ensign, R-Nev., and Jim Webb, D-Va., switched their votes to support moving ahead with the measure.
Jim Webb wants an amendment that requires that illegals have been here at least 4 years prior to be granted amnesty. He says this one amendment will put American minds at rest about the bill.
And to think I used to like Webb. What an idiot. The 1986 amnesty required all those who applied for it to be here at least 5 years or longer Guess what? Everyone produced "proof" with fake papers showing tenancy, jobs, etc that indicated they had been here 5 years or longer. Besides that, MILLIONS more swarmed the border at the last minute with their forged residency proof already in hand, though many could not tell where in America they had lived, could not get there and many addresses were bogus or would have had to house 30 to 40 illegals.
A complete Sham. So now Webb offers us LESS than the 1986 amnesty and we will be happy? These people should at least read the 1986 amnesty and all that happened so that when they think they have come up with a winning solution, they do not sound like complete idiots. They do know how to read, don't they?
- Reply to this comment
- This way we can fight many more wars for many more years to come and the militaryindustrial complex will remain happy.
Posted by GunOwnerDan at 12:42 PM : Jun 27, 2007
GunOwnerDan, they want them in the military because
they will not think twice about shooting and killing
Black and White AMERICA
as it is now the USA military will not shoot AMERICANS
http://www.infowars.com/
Posted by USAwatchman at
por Craig B Hulet
Sunday January 18, 2004
What has not been discussed in the press:
Aliens are required to register for the U.S. military draft which the administration has quietly put on the table for a post election year strategy to alleviate pressure on ground forces in our over-stretched Pentagon footprint. Those required to register for the draft fall into several categories: Permanent resident aliens; Special (seasonal) agricultural workers (Form I-688); Refugee, parolee, and asylee aliens; Undocumented (illegal) aliens; dual nationals of the U.S. and another country are required to register, regardless of where they live, because they are U.S. nationals. (Note: Lawful non-immigrants on visas (e.g., diplomatic and consular personnel and families, foreign students, tourists with unexpired visas (Forms I-94, I-95A), or those with Border Crossing Documents (Forms I-185, I-186, I-444) and Special agricultural workers (Form I-688A) do not have to register). - Reply to this comment
The year is 1907, one hundred years ago......
Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907.
"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here
in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall
be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to
discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or
origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an
American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance
here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an
American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We
have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...
And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the
American people."
Theodore Roosevelt 1907
Every American citizen needs to read this!
- Reply to this comment
- Letb35 and SharnCedar.
I understand your concerns. I just believe in a positive approach. I respect your opininions though!
Posted by penskeone at 06:06 PM : Jun 26, 2007
It appears that approximately once a day, someone else has your logon becasue suddenly, after all your insults and name calling there is a reasonable post with no spelling or grammar errors. What's up with that? - Reply to this comment
- penskeone, What happened did you forget your rubber nose today or do you ignore your own circus?
Your not worth arguing with.
Posted by penskeone at 02:02 PM : Jun 27, 2007
Read your own clippings I%u2019m not arguing with you essay.
Dude, totally. Actually I picked up a couple of illegals (at home depot) to kill a bee a hive and help me re-stucco up a wall. They did the Job in 6 hours for cheap! I cannot complain.
Posted by penskeone at 09:33 PM : Jun 26, 2007
+ report abuse
They don't make enough? They will after they are illegal! Some make more than you. I payed the guys at home depot 200 bucks each for one Day! Illegals are not drowning in Debt like us Americans? Credit Cards/ Car payments/ 30 year mortgages etc. Most of them pay cash in advance for hospital visits.
Posted by penskeone at 09:50 PM : Jun 26, 2007
It's illegal to hire illegals? I can always say that I never "knew" they were illegal. It's not illegal for them to stand in front of home depot.
Posted by penskeone at 10:09 PM : Jun 26, 2007 - Reply to this comment
Most of them pay cash in advance for hospital visits.
Posted by penskeone at 09:50 PM : Jun 26, 2007
01/24/03 - Illegal Aliens: The Health Cost DimensionThe Florida Hospital Association surveyed 28 hospitals and found that health care for illegal aliens totaled at least $40 million in 2002. ...
Care for illegal immigrants cost more than $22 million - TopixDALLAS Dallas County officials say medical care provided to illegal immigrants at Parkland Memorial Hospital cost more than 22 million dollars million this ...
Why are taxpapers providing hospital care for illegal aliens ...A Jamaican illegal spent 17 months under care at the same hospital. ... of Congress are trying to hit the taxpayers with even more costs for illegal aliens. ...
Border town hospitals straddle care and costs - Second Opinion ...Illegal immigrants part of the growing burden in health care ... That cost is one of the reasons the hospital had to close several of its services, ...
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17760618/ - 54k -
Disproportionate costs of illegal immigrationStudy shows New Mexico residents pay disproportionate costs of illegal ... but doesn't cover ambulance service or hospital costs, Rubaii-Barrett said. ...
www.nmsu.edu/~ucomm/Releases/2001/Feb2001/immigrnt.html - 8k
- Reply to this comment
- penskeone, What happened did you forget your rubber nose today or do you ignore your own circus?
Your not worth arguing with. You cannot even provide Govt Documentation on how it would cost 300-400 million to deport illegals. So maybe your the clown! - Reply to this comment
- Ha Ha your a CLOWN!
Posted by penskeone
penskeone, What happened did you forget your rubber nose today or do you ignore your own circus?
Dude, totally. Actually I picked up a couple of illegals (at home depot) to kill a bee a hive and help me re-stucco up a wall. They did the Job in 6 hours for cheap! I cannot complain.
Posted by penskeone at 09:33 PM : Jun 26, 2007
+ report abuse
They don't make enough? They will after they are illegal! Some make more than you. I payed the guys at home depot 200 bucks each for one Day! Illegals are not drowning in Debt like us Americans? Credit Cards/ Car payments/ 30 year mortgages etc. Most of them pay cash in advance for hospital visits.
Posted by penskeone at 09:50 PM : Jun 26, 2007
It's illegal to hire illegals? I can always say that I never "knew" they were illegal. It's not illegal for them to stand in front of home depot.
Posted by penskeone at 10:09 PM : Jun 26, 2007 - Reply to this comment
- We must give amnesty to millions and millions of illegal immigrants so we can recruit them into the military.
It's obvious to me.
This way we can fight many more wars for many more years to come and the militaryindustrial complex will remain happy.
Posted by GunOwnerDan at 12:42 PM : Jun 27, 2007
GunOwnerDan, they want them in the military because
they will not think twice about shooting and killing
Black and White AMERICA
as it is now the USA military will not shoot AMERICANS
http://www.infowars.com/ - Reply to this comment
- HEADS UP - Immigration bill may be a BACK DOOR to
elect a PRESIDENT who was not BORN in the USA - Reply to this comment
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
