Monday, June 24, 2013

Senator: Immigration Bill Doubts Grow Amidst Deceit

U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued the following statement after tonight’s procedural vote to advance the immigration substitute bill:

“The sponsors of the Corker-Hoeven substitute fell short of the votes they expected tonight to advance what they had erroneously billed to other Senators as a strong border security amendment. Failure to capture the votes they anticipated for this motion demonstrates the building unease this 1,200-page legislative monstrosity has created. I expect that unease will increase as Senators learn more about what’s really inside this proposal.

The Gang of Eight and their allies revealed their true tactics tonight. They shut down debate and blocked amendments to a 1,200-page immigration bill that no one has read. It was anything but the open and fair process that they had promised.

What we know for absolute certain is that this bill guarantees three things: instantaneous amnesty, permanent lawlessness, and a massive expansion in legal immigration that will reduce wages for working Americans. This legislation is a crushing blow to the working people of this country, a surrender to illegality, and a capitulation to special interests over the interests of the citizens we pledged to represent.”


BACKGROUND ON CORKER-HOEVEN SUBSTITUTE AMNESTY-FIRST IMMIGRATION BILL:
· Immediate amnesty before enforcement
· Guts legal requirement for biometric exit-entry system
· Millions of green cards (permanent residency) before enforcement—debunking another false claim from sponsors
· No border surge. Agents aren’t required until 2021. It will never happen
· No fence requirement. DHS retains discretion in the bill that preempts the call for a fence in ten years. Litigation also provides an escape hatch to never build the fence. The fence won’t happen
· Legalization for gang members and convicted criminals
· Amnesty for future visa overstays (in other words, a prospective amnesty for future illegal immigrants)
· Guaranteed welfare access for illegal immigrants
· Undermines interior enforcement, prompting ICE officers to warn: “There is no doubt that, if passed, public safety will be endangered and massive amounts of future illegal immigration—especially visa overstays—is ensured.”
· Expands non-merit chain migration—less than 10 percent of future flow is merit-based
· Doubles the number of guest workers and triples the number of immigrants granted lawful permanent residency—reducing wages for U.S. workers and driving up unemployment

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