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The “second” immigration bill is up for it’s second cloture vote today to cut off debate and move towards voting for it.  This cloture vote is coming quickly because of an agreed upon limit of 30 hours of debate.  Here’s a link to the amendment package in HTML or PDF format.

• Immigration Amendment Package

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The Zogby Interactive poll of 8,300 adults nationwide finds just 3% of Americans viewing Congress’s handling of the immigration issue in favorable terms, while 9% say the same of the President-even as respondents in the survey rated it the second most important issue facing the country, after the war in Iraq.

• UPI/Zogby Poll: Government Mishandling Immigration

UPATE (by Jeff): I recently contacted Senator Corker regarding the new immigration bill.  Here’s a part of his response.  Although a form letter, I think he (his staff writers?) nailed it pretty well:

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Today by a 64-35 margin, the Senate voted for cloture to bring S. 1639 (the “re-numbered so you think we worked on it” Amnesty bill formerly known as S. 1348) to the floor for debate. There are rumors flying about back room deals trading amendments for cloture votes - which explains the shift from the previous vote a few weeks ago.

The cloture votes are the people’s best chance to stop this bill as it only takes 41 “no” votes instead of 51. There will be another cloture vote to end the debate which will be the last good shot at killing this bill in the Senate again.

All told there were 9 Democratic Senators that voted with the people along with 26 Republicans. Also Sen. Johnson, Dem from SD is still recovering from Brain Surgery. (His “not voting” counts as another “no”) All three Presidential hopefuls - Clinton, Obama & McKain - voted to move Amnesty forward.

• S. 1639 Cloture Vote

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As a public service to our readers we have summarized 10 flaws in the Amnesty bill that the Senate and President are hell bent on reviving in spite of the recent polling that shows only 20% of the public support it.

1. Illegals get “legal” status immediately. Enforcement to follow hopefully…
2. Despite rhetoric to the contrary, the bill does not require (or fund) any additional agents, beds, or fences.
3. Background checks are not required. (Or feasible when we’re 3 months behind in passports)
4. Criminals are not exempted from amnesty. (Such an amendment was proposed but voted down by the Senate)
5. Despite claims, the new legals are not required to pay back income taxes.
6. The new legals and guest workers can both claim the earned income tax credit. (Don’t believe the claims that the new workers will reduce the tax burden)
7. The “enforcement triggers” do not require the US VISIT system (the check in & out tracking system created by Congress in ‘96 but never implemented) to be operational before commencing the guest worker program. Meaning the system to track people overstaying their Visas doesn’t need to exist before we start handing Visas out.
8. In-state tuition will be available to the new “legals” - just not to out-of-state citizens.
9. Affidavits from friends are considered acceptable evidence to establish you meet the amnesty criteria (for instance that you entered the country illegally before 1/1/07)
10. And my personal favorite is that illegal aliens with terrorist connections will not be barred from the amnesty if they show “good moral character”. (Uhm, yeah.)

I’ve not commented much on the on-going immigration debate, Scott has been doing a great job keeping up.  However, I read a column today by Rich Lowry about Cynicism and Government.  In it, he describes a couple of instances of Americans coming together to achieve great things, even during hard times, and contrasts them with modern times:

In five years, we built the Hoover Dam. From 1931 to 1936, the Colorado River was diverted with tunnels blasted into the Black Canyon walls, a town was built to house a small army of workers laboring in the desert, and 3 1/4 million cubic yards of concrete were poured into a dam reaching 726 1/2 feet high — two years ahead of schedule.

It’s hard to look back at this monumental effort without a feeling of envy. The dam was completed on the backs of desperate men during the Great Depression, but from this remove, it looks like an apotheosis of the can-do spirit. Who believes we could do something similar today, that political bickering, governmental bungling, Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations, lawsuits, and environmental objections wouldn’t make such a project all but impossible?

While his piece is more of a commentary on the state of our government, I couldn’t help but think of the immigration debate.  Why?  Well, how’s that wall down on the border coming?  Some chain-link here, some concrete there, and the border is much more secure.  The wall will probably never be built, and that is why Americans are so opposed to the new deal being struck.  Not necessarily the wall per se, but the fact that our government can not even secure the border makes the other issues moot.  For, if we do not decide the means in which people are immigrating, what good do the reforms do?  Would it matter if we increased the amount of people allowed in, or eased the path to citizenship, if people can still walk across the border and partake of our country without even looking into the process?

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President Bush is headed to Capital Hill today to try and revive his immigration travesty. In hearing all the spin on this bill and much ignorance about it’s provisions, I thought I would VERY simply point out the Amnesty in S. 1348.

Those supporting the bill like to point to all of these measures that such as learning English and fines to state that there is no Amnesty in this bill. There are punishments. There are hoops they have to jump through. But therein lies the dirty little secret of this bill that most people are missing: illegals won’t have to do ANY of those things.

That’s right. The second this bill is signed into law every single illegal will be LEGAL. Done. Fini. The fine, the English, the mandatory trips back home… they are all steps to citizenship. Don’t want to be a citizen? Oh - well, you’re legal… have a nice life! (And don’t forget to enjoy all our social services!)
This bill is amnesty because it’s solution to the 12-20 million illegals is to simply make them legal. Tada! No more millions of illegals in the country. Problem solved right? Right? So while the provisions to bring the ex-illegals families into the country by the millions are economically scary and the promises at better enforcement of this new law over the current law are unbelievable, one thing is certain. Waving a wand to make 20 million il-legals, legal IS Amnesty.

In a temporary victory for the people, enough of the government became afraid of steamrolling their voters - even in an effort to create some new ones. That’s right, the immigration travesty of 2007 has been beaten back, if only for a little while.

Everyone that called, faxed, emailed or visited their Senator can pause for a moment to pat themselves on the back. The bill failed to achieve cloture first 33 to 63 and then at 45 to 50 (remember 60 is required). The Senate is now moving on to other things, as the more debate that occurred - the more info about it revealed - the more the people of this great country were against it. Sen. Reid has promised to bring the bill around again “soon”. But more likely than not, this issue will be delayed enough to become a center piece of the next Presidential election. Or at least we can hope for that, as this is an issue about which American’s agree. The hard part will be bringing around the politicians.

Be sure an check in on how your reps voted:
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That’s right a whopping 16% of the American people believe the Senate Bill will reduce illegal immigration. I think almost as many Americans believe space aliens have come here (sorry couldn’t resist the parallel).

Today the Senate votes on cloture to end debate on the immigration bill. If this doesn’t pass it could kill the bill. We’ll keep score and let you know the results here.
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Stanley Kurtz has a nice (short) piece on Chain Migration at the Nation Review Online that discusses how

“Chain migration has cleared out entire village in Mexico. And it has turned areas of rural North Carolina into places where Spanish is the dominant language.”

• Chain, Chain, Chain