The Senate Votes Down Enforcement First
In an effort to promote security enforcement at the border first and foremost, Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia proposed an amendment to the pending immigration bill in the Senate that would demand the borders be certified as secure by the Department of Homeland Security before any guest worker provisions begin. However, the amendment was voted down:
Bill backers on Tuesday defeated two amendments that would have gutted the Senate bill. In votes that crossed party lines, the Senate rejected 55-40 a requirement that the border be secured before other immigration changes are made. They also voted 69-28 to scuttle a Democratic amendment to exclude foreigners and recent illegal immigrants from a new guest worker program.
Michelle Malkin is carrying the list of GOP Senators who have rejected this common-sense security amendment and sided with open border Democrats, including Sam Brownback, Lindsay Graham, and Chuck Hagel:
Bennett (UT)
Brownback (R-KS),
Chafee (RI),
Coleman (MN),
Collins (ME),
Craig (ID),
DeWine (OH),
Graham (SC),
Hagel (NE),
Lugar (IN),
Martinez (FL),
Murkowski (AK),
Shelby (AL),
Snow (ME),
Specter (PA),
Stevens (AK),
Voinovich (OH),
Warner (VA)
More at the Washington Times:
The Senate yesterday voted against securing the border before implementing provisions that would grant the right of citizenship to millions of illegal aliens and that would double the flow of legal immigration.
The amendment would have delayed the “amnesty” and guest-worker provisions in the Senate’s comprehensive immigration-reform bill until the border had been sewn up successfully. The majority of Democrats, 36 of 44, were joined by 18 Republicans and the chamber’s lone independent to kill the amendment on an 55-40 vote.
