The Senate voted yesterday to grant amnesty to hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens who have already been caught and ordered deported but are defying a court order, preserving their path to citizenship as part of the immigration bill.
Yesterday’s major fight was over part of the bill that wipes out the immigration charges against illegal aliens who have already faced a judge and been ordered deported, known as alien absconders, and over part of the bill that applies to aliens who have already been deported but sneaked back into the country again.
Sen John Cornyn offered an amendment to prevent those aliens from gaining legal status, arguing they have already shown disrespect for the law and should be sent home.
Mr. Cornyn’s amendment was defeated 51-46, with 10 Republicans joining most Democrats and the chamber’s two independents in voting to preserve the path to citizenship for absconders.
Isn’t that fantastic? People who have already broken our laws multiple times will get to stay in this country. Then they can kill people that Americans won’t, as a I mentioned in a rage the other day.
But Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, said they were only guilty of "common, garden-variety immigration offenses" that should not disqualify them.
"Our employers beg them to come back and our broken borders make that possible," he said.
Why not send the story of how a drunken illegal who had already been deported twice was driving on the wrong side of the road here in Raleigh, and killed one and seriously hurt another to Teddy.
As far as employers go, slap them with massive fines for employing illegals. Would make sense, eh?
Michelle has the list of the Republicans who voted against it underlined for you seething enjoyment.
On the bright side
After losing his absconders vote, Mr. Cornyn outmaneuvered Mr. Kennedy on another issue, getting the Senate to pass an amendment waiving confidentiality for illegal aliens who apply for but are denied legalization. With Mr. Cornyn’s amendment, which passed 57-39, the Department of Homeland Security could now use that information to track down rejected aliens and deport them.
Mr. Kennedy strenuously opposed the amendment, his face turning red as he thundered against it on the Senate floor.
"If the Cornyn amendment is adopted, there are no individuals that are going to register for any of these programs, none," he said. "This is a report-to-deport amendment."
Here’s hoping that Ted is correct on that last part.
To the first, I am not sure why illegal aliens, again, not entitled to our Constitutional guarantees, should get any sort of confidentiality in the first place.
Finally, if you live in Massachusetts, how about emailing this story to Kennedy, let him know what absconders do? Of course, Kennedy himself has done the job himself, so I guess he isn’t the best of moral compasses.
Do you have an interesting post? Well, go ahead and leave a trackback, with a reciprical link back to me. Others offering open trackbacks are over in the right sidebar, near bottom.
