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A victory for our country, at least in the short term. John Hawkins at Rightwingnews.com has the lowdown about what happened today and why Harry Reid pulled the bill. Thank God for Jim Demint:

A GOP Aide, who’s one of my sources in the Senate, gave me the rundown on what happened to the Senate bill today.

After the 2nd cloture vote failure at noon on Thursday, Harry Reid could not get unanimous consent to call up amendments to the bill because Jim DeMint refused to give his consent. This was extremely problematic for Reid because he wanted to get in votes on 6 more amendments before the last try at a cloture vote.

At that point, all the senators who were participants in the “Grand Compromise” AKA the “Masters of the Universe” by the opponents of the bill, leaned on DeMint to try to get him to give consent for the bill to move forward. Unfortunately for them, DeMint wouldn’t budge. This essentially killed the entire afternoon that the pro-amnesty side hoped to use to shore up support for the bill.

While DeMint was gumming up the works, the opponents of the bill, including most prominently Jim DeMint, Jeff Sessions, and Tom Coburn, huddled and came up with a list of conservative amendments they wanted considered.

The “Grand Compromise” crowd didn’t want a lot of these amendments to be voted on because either some of the amendments would have been accepted and it would have killed the bill or alternately, they would have had to vote against common sense enforcement measures and made themselves look bad.

Eventually, after the process was tied up all afternoon and failed a third cloture vote, Harry Reid yanked the bill even though the opponents of the bill said they were willing to stop gumming up the process as long as all the amendments they wanted were voted on today.

Read the whole thing…

Here’s what President Bush said today in regards to the recent immigration bill cooked up in Washington:

“If you want to scare the American people, what you say is the bill’s an amnesty bill,” Mr. Bush said this afternoon at a training center for border enforcement agents located in this town in Georgia’s southeastern corner. “That’s empty political rhetoric, trying to frighten our citizens.”

Sorry Mr. President, you’re as wrong as wrong can get. What frightens people is what will happen if the proposed bill becomes law - suddenly 12 million illegal immigrants will be welcomed into this country with open arms regardless if they broke they law to get here. The proposed bill is amnesty, pure and simple. It awards illegal immigrants by allowing them to jump ahead in the immigration line, get a “Z” visa that can be renewed every four years for as long as they’d like, and awards them for jumping our border and breaking our immigration laws. The proposed bill is NOT acceptable and those in the GOP who support it are dead wrong; that means YOU, Mr. President.

“People in Congress need the courage to go back to their districts and explain exactly what this bill is all about,” Mr. Bush said. “The fundamental question is, will elected officials have the courage necessary to put a comprehensive immigration plan in place that makes it more likely we can enforce our border and, at the same time, uphold the great traditions of —— immigrant traditions of the United States of America.”

The message is not getting lost or miscommunicated Mr. President. People simply don’t like the message and reject the premise of this bill, which seems to be the legalization of 12 million illegal aliens. Here’s a new fundamental question the president should consider: Does the Congress of the United States have the courage to actually follow the will of the people and reject this horrendous amnesty proposal? Anything less than total rejection of this horrible McCain-Kennedy compromise is simply unacceptable.

I thought this was a cool little quote to wake up to this morning:

House Minority Leader John Boehner on the Senate immigration bill -

“I promised the President today that I wouldn’t say anything bad about … this piece of shit bill,” he said, according to two attendees.

That’s exactly what I think about it too.

Read the whole thing…

Apparently, John McCain and John Cornyn had a “spirited exchange” before going public on the recent immigration deal:

During a meeting Thursday on immigration legislation, McCain and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) got into a shouting match when Cornyn started voicing concerns about the number of judicial appeals that illegal immigrants could receive, according to multiple sources — both Democrats and Republicans — who heard firsthand accounts of the exchange from lawmakers who were in the room.

At a bipartisan gathering in an ornate meeting room just off the Senate floor, McCain complained that Cornyn was raising petty objections to a compromise plan being worked out between Senate Republicans and Democrats and the White House. He used a curse word associated with chickens and accused Cornyn of raising the issue just to torpedo a deal.

Things got really heated when Cornyn accused McCain of being too busy campaigning for president to take part in the negotiations, which have gone on for months behind closed doors. “Wait a second here,” Cornyn said to McCain. “I’ve been sitting in here for all of these negotiations and you just parachute in here on the last day. You’re out of line.”

McCain, a former Navy pilot, then used language more accustomed to sailors (not to mention the current vice president, who made news a few years back after a verbal encounter with Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont).

“[Expletive] you! I know more about this than anyone else in the room,” shouted McCain at Cornyn. McCain helped craft a bill in 2006 that passed the Senate but couldn’t be compromised with a House bill that was much tougher on illegal immigrants.

John McCain, you’ve sold out your constituents, your party, and the America people more times than I’d like to mention, especially when it comes to immigration and your back room dealings with Ted Kennedy on any number of issues. I hope Giuliani or Romney pulvarize you in the primaries. You don’t deserve to be President of the United States.

Update: I’ve had enough of McCain’s crap.

After making a few comments, McCain left the Capitol to head to New York for presidential campaign events. Later that day, McCain missed his 43rd straight vote, this on the $2.9 trillion budget outline.

And he has the nerve to jump on Cornyn for legitimate issues when he’s missed 43 votes. Thanks for earning your paycheck Senator…sickening.

Read the whole thing…

The Washington Post is reporting that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is looking to bring back last year’s broad immigration bill back to the Senate floor:

The legislation — which couples a border security crackdown with a guest-worker program and new avenues for undocumented immigrants to work legally in the country — passed the Senate a year ago this month with the support of 62 members, 23 of them Republican, only to die in the House. With Democrats now in control of Congress and with the president eager for an accomplishment, immigrant rights groups believe the prospects for a final deal are far better this year.

This is all well and good except for the fact that most Americans don’t support comprehensive immigration reform. What makes the situation even worse is that for the sake of political expediency, some major GOP’ers are coming out against it, when in last year’s GOP-controlled Congress, they actually came out for broad-based immigration reform. I can accept this from the Democrats, and actually, I expect it. But I am disappointed when I see such political pandering from the GOP:

And, this year, the issue is tangled in presidential politics. One White House hopeful, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), has all but renounced a career-long stance favorable to immigrant rights. And the co-author of last year’s bill, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), has been largely absent from this year’s negotiations, as he soft-pedals his pro-immigration stance.

For such a crucial issue like immigration reform, you can’t just have a certain stance one day and completely change your stance when you run for president (think John Kerry). Not only am I disappointed in the above presidential hopefuls, but this kind of flip-flopping gives the GOP a worse reputation than it already has.

When will the insanity come to an end? Maybe when we enact term limits for Congress.

Read the whole thing…

*Hit tip to Powerline

Yet again, another story in the Associated Press that shows the utter failure of the Bush Administration and the former Republican-controlled Congress in enforcing our immigration laws:

Immigrants arrested for being in the United States illegally may have been charged up to six more times, for more serious crimes, after they were released by local authorities, new Justice Department data indicate.

-Snip-

The data suggest “the rate at which released criminal aliens are re-arrested is extremely high,” the audit noted. The report, parts of which were redacted, was required by Congress in 2005 and looked at how local and state authorities that receive Justice Department funding are working with the Homeland Security Department.

Illegal aliens being arrested, released, then re-arrested for more serious crimes while still in the United States in simply unacceptable. The Congress and the president must untie the hands of states and local authorities to prosecute and/or deport the thousands of illegal alien criminals in our country today. There must be Congressional accountability on this issue! Instead of working to accomplish the will of the people and strengthen our immigration policies by providing more resources (including National Guard) at the border, the Congress and the president have told the American people they really don’t care about border security; it seems they only care about the election season. It’s time to get tough on these illegal criminals and deport them.

Unfortunately, with the new Democratic majority in Congress, I highly doubt anything will be done to enhance border security.

In my eyes, the following article shows a mindset that is a contributing factor to the total failure of the Bush Administration and the 109th Congress to reform immigration policy. A pizza chain in Texas will soon accept the Mexican Peso for sales of its food products:

Starting Monday, patrons of the Dallas-based Pizza Patrón chain, which caters heavily to Latinos, will be able to purchase American pizzas with Mexican pesos.

Restaurant experts and economists said they knew of no other food chain with locations so far from the Mexican border offering such a service.

“We’re trying to reach out to our core customer,” Antonio Swad, president of Pizza Patrón Inc., said Friday.

Read more at Dallas Morning News 

While I can see a distinct market advantage here, the question arises, “What happened to the practice of using American currency in America?” In my opinion, this is the same category of tragedy as seen in mid-2006, when thousands of illegal aliens took to the streets in protest of potential American immigration reform with Mexican flags in hand and other isolated incidents, including a Mexican flag being raised at a high school and a post office.

Here’s an idea for consumers who intend to pay physical pesos for goods in the United States - go to a bank and exchange your pesos for American dollars!

The Senate yesterday easily approved an immigration bill that allows 10 million illegal aliens to become citizens, doubles the flow of legal immigration each year and will cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $54 billion over the next 10 years.

The leaders of both parties hailed the 62-36 passage as a historic success

Majority Leader Bill Frist said the vote represented the “very best” of the Senate.”This is a success for the American people,” the Tennessee Republican said. “It is a success for people who hope to participate someday in that American dream.”

-Snip-

The 62-36 roll call by which the Senate yesterday passed a broad immigration-reform bill. Voting “yes” were 38 Democrats, 23 Republicans and one independent. Voting “no” were 32 Republicans and four Democrats.

-Snip-

-Amnesty: 10 million illegals can apply for citizenship.
-Border security: Adds 370 miles of triple-wire fencing and 500 miles of vehicle barriers;  adds 3,000 Border Patrol agents this year
-Employers: No penalties for businesses that hired illegals

Link

While seeing the Congress work in a bipartisan way toward a comprehensive immigration strategy is quite encouraging, I just don’t think this particular bill has what it takes to stem illegal immigration, while encouraging people to come into the United States in a lawful manner

Congress should’ve taken up immigration enforcement first and focused on guest worker provisions at a later period. The reality is that our borders are nowhere near as secure as they should be and border patrol agents are in dire need of additional personnel and new equipment to secure it. This bill, while offering hundreds of miles of fencing and a projected number of new border patrol agents, does not go far enough. We must secure the border with a universal fence (where possible) and allow the National Guard to do law enforcement duties under the control of state governors.

This bill also does not do enough to penalize employers who hire illegal aliens. In fact, this bill does nearly nothing to that affect. Employers must realize it is unlawful to hire illegal aliens in the first place and should have to confirm Social Security numbers before hiring immigrants. This would cut down on document fraud and unlawful workers.

As I’ve said before, the borders must be secure, first and foremost. This immigration compromise in the Senate does not go far enough in dealing with illegal immigration and a fight in conference between the House and the Senate is a foregone conclusion. The House must take a hard line on the immigration issue, forcing the government to secure the border.

Townhall.com has more about the bill:

-Urging the hiring of 1,000 more Border Patrol agents this year and 14,000 by 2011.
-Endorsing Bush’s plan for a short-term deployment of National Guard troops to states along the border with Mexico.
-Calling for the construction of 370 miles of fencing on the border.
-The guest worker program would admit 200,000 individuals a year. They eventually could apply for a green card, which confers legal permanent residency.

An interesting editorial from the Washington Times explains several reasons why many rank and file conservatives do not trust President Bush to crack down on illegal immigration:

Put plainly, when Mr. Bush talks tough on border security and enforcement, conservatives don’t believe him, and they have the facts to back them up. Last week’s address to the nation, during which Mr. Bush proposed adding 6,000 Border Patrol agents by 2007, wasn’t the first time he’s made such a promise. When one considers that it was just a couple of years ago when Mr. Bush promised to add 2,000 agents every year for the next five years, only to submit a 2006 budget calling for only 210, it’s no wonder why conservatives remain wary.

-Snip-

All of which is to say that Mr. Bush needs some bona fides on border security and enforcement. A recent CNN poll found that 66 percent of the public favors increasing penalties for employers who hire illegal immigrants. Here’s one instance where the administration can reverse its abysmal record on employer sanctions, which dropped from 417 who had been fined for hiring illegal aliens in 1999 to just three in 2004. Mr. Bush should call for stricter employer sanctions and for increasing the number of federal investigators looking into those cases.
 
That’s not all. Mr. Bush should endorse the House immigration bill’s proposed 700-mile fence along the southern border, instead of the Senate’s 370-mile version. That’s still less than half of what’s required, but an improvement nonetheless. Also, the administration should stop advertising how many illegal aliens it has apprehended and start telling Americans how many it has deported. Mr. Bush’s trumpeting of his administration’s arrest and deportation of 6 million illegal aliens is actually a decline compared to any five-year period under Mr. Clinton. Once that number begins to rise in a significant way, then the administration can claim progress.

Action, not words, will convince conservatives that the president is serious about border security.

While I do not trust political polling in the least, a recent poll by Rasmussen offers an interesting viewpoint in terms of illegal immigration:

The Rasmussen Reports national opinion survey taken the night after the President’s nationally televised address also highlighted a common misconception about the immigration debate.

Media commentaries often suggest that support for an enforcement first policy is an option supported primarily by conservatives. In fact, 67% of political moderates support such an approach. That’s virtually indistinguishable from the 66% of conservatives who support for enforcement-first approach. Fifty-two percent (52%) of self-identified liberals also hold this view.

Link

The Congress and the president would be wise to take the body politic seriously when it comes to immigration. Since the beginning of the whole debate, the public has continued to support enforcement first, worrying about border control and law enforcement first and foremost. I would suspect most people would also support the idea of debating the fate of our 12 million illegal aliens once the country has a border control strategy.