Update: Cloture Vote In Progress
Update: Rounding Up All The Senators For Cloture Vote
Re-Link: Senate Debate, Live Feed

No cloture vote yet.

Right now Byron Dorgan is speaking. And, um, making far more sense than any damn Republican except for Jeff Sessions.

He wants to know why it is that we need a guest worker provision in order to stop illegal immigration if this "grand compromise" supposedly enforces the border and stops illegal immigration. "Maybe someone's misrepresenting this bill," he says.

Interesting... Pins lack of vigorous wage growth on illegal immigration's downward pressures on wages.

And gee, I thought it was due to Bush's Hooverville economy.

Although, I guess, it is partly due to Bush's non-border-enforcement policy.

Michelle Malkin... has been following this all day. Amazing stuff.

Sen. Daniel Akaka is railing against the Real ID act (um, how are we supposed to verify people's legal status without some sort of hard-to-forge ID?).

The Senate actually voted against the Coburn Amendment. Let's see what horrible things that contained, eh?

EXISTING LAW.--The following provisions of existing law shall be fully implemented, as previously directed by the Congress, prior to the certification set forth in paragraph (1):

(A) The Department has achieved and maintained operational control over the entire international land and maritime borders of the United States as required under the Secure Fence Act of 2006 (Public Law 109-367)

(B) The total miles of fence required under such Act have been constructed.

(C) All databases maintained by the Department which contain information on aliens shall be fully integrated as required by section 202 of the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002 (8 U.S.C. 1722).

(D) The Department shall have implemented a system to record the departure of every alien departing the United States and of matching records of departure with the records of arrivals in the United States through the US-VISIT program as required by section 110 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1221 note).

(E) The provision of law that prevents States and localities from adopting ``sanctuary'' policies or that prevents State and local employees from communicating with the Department are fully enforced as required by section 642 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1373).

(F) The Department employs fully operational equipment at each port of entry and uses such equipment in a manner that allows unique biometric identifiers to be compared and visas, travel documents, passports, and other documents authenticated in accordance with section 303 of the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002 (8 U.S.C. 1732).

(G) An alien with a border crossing card is prevented from entering the United States until the biometric identifier on the border crossing card is matched against the alien as required by section 101(a)(6) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(6)).

(H) Any alien who is likely to become a public charge is denied entry into the United States pursuant to section 212(a)(4) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(4)).

Yeah, they're serious about enforcing immigration laws, except for the part about "enforcing," and the part about "immigrations," and that minor bit about "laws."

Ted Kennedy earlier said this bill was about, um, "the rule of law."

Chris Dodd claimed Congress has no right to make rules concerning "family reunificiation," i.e., chain migration bringing in other family members as new legal immigrants. Congress has no right to pass laws about this? Really?

Byron Dorgan, believe it or not, posted a piece in NRO today. Yes, that NRO.

Now, I’m sensitive to the fact that some immigrants who have come here illegally have worked hard for decades and even raised their families here. We need to take that into account as we try to resolve their status.

But I don’t think we should decide that anybody who showed up here illegally as of last December 31 should be given a green light to stay here and work here permanently.

Our laws need to be enforced — both at the border and at the workplace. Just as someone sneaking across the border illegally should be punished, so too should employers who break the law and hire illegal immigrants for low wages.

Once we’ve secured the border, and taken away the market for illegal labor, then will be the time to consider the best way to address the status of illegal immigrants in our country.

Boy howdee. Who knew I'd be getting a chubby for Byron F'n' Dorgan today?

Thanks to Larwyn for the MM tip.

posted by Ace at 06:51 PM

| Access Comments