Border Patrol Agents Blast New Immigration Bill
When the new immigration bill — a truly delicate compromise between seemingly irreconcilable sides on the highly emotional issue — comes to the Senate floor this week, expect high drama and a bit of suspense.
The reason: even though the bill is a compromise and what politicos on both sides of the issue say is the best chance to pass any kind of a bill this year (or for some years to come), it’s being blasted by some on both sides of the issue. The Christian Science Monitor:
Even before the details of a sweeping immigration reform deal were released this week, lawmakers and “stakeholders” on all sides of the issue began carving out changes they say are needed for the bill to become law.
Immigration rights groups want to reverse measures that tilt preferences in the visa system toward merit, rather than family reunification. Some labor unions want to scuttle the vast new guest worker program. And conservatives are blasting a plan that opens the door to legal status to some 12 million people now in the country illegally.
But the breadth of the coalition backing this bill – and the political skills of its sponsors – will give this bill momentum, as it faces a Senate debate next week and a perilous passage through the House in July.
Sen. Lindsay Graham (D) of South Carolina, a key negotiator, predicted that support in the Senate “will be overwhelming, as long as the agreement holds together.” A weary aide put it more bluntly: “Now, we’re all about to become piñatas for our respective groups.”
If it passes, some political heads could roll on both sides. If it doesn’t, some political heads could roll also. And those who believe the bill is a massive mistake and doesn’t take a hard enough line have gotten a boost now that the National Border Patrol Council has come out squarely against it, as the Washington Times reports:
The leadership of all 11,000 nonsupervisory U.S. Border Patrol agents yesterday criticized an immigration compromise by senators and the Bush administration as “piecemeal” legislation that invites future terrorist attacks and fails to secure the nation’s borders.
“Every person who has ever risked their life securing our borders is extremely disheartened to see some of our elected representatives once again waving the white flag on the issues of illegal immigration and border security,” National Border Patrol Council President T.J. Bonner said.
“Rewarding criminal behavior has never induced anyone to abide by the law, and there is no reason to believe the outcome will be any different this time,” he said.
Mr. Bonner said that with the ever-present threat of terrorism, it is critical to take steps necessary to immediately and completely secure the nation’s borders, adding that “piecemeal measures” will prolong America’s vulnerability and are “an open invitation to further terrorist attacks.”
This will give further impetus to the bill’s critics, particularly cable and radio talk show hosts who are already asking their audiences to flood Congress with calls expressing (a) opposition and (b) saying they will switch political parties, register as independent voters or vote against them if this bill passes. So far there is no huge emotional counterpart to motivate massive groups of people on the other side of this issue to call in and clamor for its passage. Will The Intensity Factor rule the day?
[Bonner]said the Border Patrol is “totally overwhelmed” by the number of illegal aliens crossing daily into the United States. Last year, the Border Patrol apprehended 1.1 million illegals, more than 3,000 every day.
“Rather than meaningless triggers of additional personnel and barriers outlined in the compromise, Americans must insist that border security be measured in absolute terms,” Mr. Bonner said. “Sadly, the plan that the Senate is proposing falls woefully short by that yardstick and needlessly jeopardizes the security of this nation.”
Will it pass?
News accounts differ between those who say the coalition will hold firm (the Monitor story) and those who contend passage of the bill is questionable (the Times story and some wire stories). In the end, it’ll depend on whether the coalition does indeed hold firm. And even if it passes in the Senate, there are doubts about how the proposal will fare among GOPers in the House.
But if it’s approved in the Senate, look for Bush’s and the GOP’s poll ratings to go down since this is truly “hot button” issue among conservatives — and despite some attempts to sell its conservative base on its approach to this issue, the administration’s outreach-and-convince efforts on this have been woefully inadequate…as have its efforts to convince rather than impose its decisions on other policies. The result: those who oppose it will feel they lost on a vote count and will feel betrayed by an administration that didn’t do it’s homework in terms of convincing or at least neutralizing opposition within its own party base.
A key characteristics of the Bush administration is its inability to adequately build consensus on issues. Rather, it decides, presents and then tries to shove through many of its policies on various fronts. This bill was a compromise bill, but an administration that had greater abilities in aggregating interests versus vote-counting might have been able to bring a greater part of its party’s conservative base along with solid and comprehensive arguments and political skills.
11 Responses to “Border Patrol Agents Blast New Immigration Bill”
The bill will pass in its current horrible state because the fix is in. If you look at the Sunday Washington Post there is not a single article or editorial about the immigration bill.
Since the bill was proposed this week and will be finished by next week. It appears that official DC has decided that immigration is just not an important issue. Thus, the bill will pass and then will quickly be ignored.
SD is right.
I don’t trust our national government in its current state to competently solve or accomplish anything of true importance to the people, unless it has to do with improving the profits of big business.
It’s a political minefield. There’s a substantial number of people in this country for whom anything less than a completely open border and legitimization of current illegals doesn’t even meet the minimum level of acceptability. There’s another group for whom anything less than a hermetically-sealed border and expulsion of current illegal immigrants is out.
Any passable bill will require compromise. What’s the compromise between those two positions?
Matthew Yglesias
Sounds like a creative solution.
[...] Border Patrol Agents Blast New Immigration BillThe Moderate Voice – And those who believe the bill is a massive mistake and doesn t take a hard enough line have gotten a boost now that the National Border Patrol Council has come out squarely against it, as the Washington Times reports: The leadership of all 11,000 [...]
[...] been made, and there is no need for further debate. That is clearly not the case in this instance. In fact, it might be more accurate to say the only person who seems to like this agreement is the [...]
The compromise is enforcing the current law.
Lets put it this way, I have a feeling that anyone of us could read through this bill and find many places where it is broken in our opinion. I doubt very much that it requires State and local governments to work within the law. So Sanctuary cities will probably continue. My understanding is that the Z-visa check has a very big loophole, if its not done in 24 hours they get it by default.
If its not going to be a good bill, a well thought out bill, then it shouldn’t be passed. Even if it is a good bill, prior to passing it, we should rigorously enforce the current law first. After doing that for a while, there would be good information to actually base the bill on. Right now there isn’t.
The numbers on illegal aliens are between 11 and 20 million, a big gap between the two estimates. DHS and the Pew research center put the number at around 11 million. The Wall Street financial firm Bear Stearns said the number could be as high as 20 million based on a comprehensive study of the underground economy. The Bear Stearns report also said that 3 million illegals were entering the country each year.
http://washingtontimes.com/national/20060818-113931-6322r.htm
As Bear Stearns put it ‘Our research has identified significant evidence that the census estimates of undocumented immigrants may be capturing as little as half of the total undocumented population,” the report said. “This gross undercounting is a serious accounting issue, which could ultimately lead to government policy errors in the future.”
U.S. Congressman John Culberson has a peice on his web page about the effect
of amnesty on Social Security. There really needs to be more discussion in
the open about this bill. I find it negligent and dasterdly that that the
press and government are not fully discussing both sides and all the issues.
It seems that their intention is to instead ram it through and afterwards we
just have to deal with it.
http://www.culberson.house.gov/news.aspx?A=269
27,000,000 Illegal Invaders already here looting our hospitals and social services and the farmers can’t find enough of them to work for them. Maybe the answer isn’t more!
The thing that concerns me about any sort of immigration law reform is that every few years they re-invent the same laws. Each time they work in amnesty and gravy parts for the illegal aliens. They are always quick to hand out the amnesty and gravy parts but they never do get around to the enforcement parts of the laws.
Do they really need a shiny new set of laws when they have never given the old comprehensive laws a test drive?
http://www.vdare.com/rubenstein/051101_nd.htm
Notices of intent to fine employers:
1997: 865
1999: 417
2000: 178
2001: 100
2003: 162
2004: 3
Worksite arrests of illegal alien workers:
1997: 17,554
1999: 2,849
2000: 953
2001: 735
2003: 445
2004: 159
[...] blogosphere, including our own Scott and other locals of note. (See also border control agents here, reliable GOP types here, Mickey Kaus emanating his long displayed skepticism on almost any sort [...]
[...] Border Patrol Agents Blast New Immigration BillThe Moderate Voice – And those who believe the bill is a massive mistake and doesn t take a hard enough line have gotten a boost now that the National Border Patrol Council has come out squarely against it, as the Washington Times reports: The leadership of all 11,000 [...]
[...] agents,†but “fewer than 350 new agents have been hired.â€Â Additionally, according to themoderatevoice.com the leadership of all 11,000 nonsupervisory U.S. Border Patrol agents yesterday criticized {the} [...]