DAILY SENATE AMENSTY UPDATE

The Senate reconvened at 9:45 am on Tuesday, May 16 to debate S.2611, the guest
worker amnesty bill authored by Senators Specter, Hagel and Martinez. Debate
continued throughout the day, into the early evening, with amendments offered
and roll call votes taken. Below is a summary of the day's events.

Senator Frist began by remarking on President Bush's address on Monday
night. Stating, "Our borders are out of control," he supported the President's
decision to send the National Guard to the border. He said it was an appropriate
action to take until more Border Patrol agents can be trained.

Senator
Reid also remarked on President Bush's speech, saying that the President "did a
commendable job." He also supported the temporary deployment of the National
Guard to the Border, but said that we also need more detention beds and border
patrol agents. Senator Reid called on the President to stay engaged in the
debate and to publicly recognize how bad the House bill is. He called on the
Senate to use this bill as an opportunity to exhibit bipartisanship and asked
Senators to vote their conscience.

Senator Craig stood up on the Senate
floor and declared, "The President gets it." He then added, "If the Senate
doesn't get it, shame on us." He continued by saying that the U.S. economy needs
immigrant workers-several hundreds of thousands a year.

Senator Isakson
commended President Bush for his speech and his prioritizing of border security.
He stated that when the laws are enforced and enforced soundly, our laws will be
obeyed and respected. The Senator stated that the first thing the U.S. needs to
do is secure its border, and then it can consider granting legal status to
aliens. "This country can do anything it sets its mind to," he said. Senator
Isakson offered amendment #3961, which delayed the implementation of any
legalization program under the bill until the Department of Homeland Security
certifies that the enforcement provisions (including the addition of detention
space) have been implemented.

Senator Salazar offered amendment #3994, a
competing amendment to the Isakson amendment. This amendment provided that
neither the guest worker nor the amnesty programs shall be implemented until the
President determines that doing so is in the national interest. Senator Salazar
complimented the President for supporting "comprehensive immigration reform."
The Senator said he agreed with the President that all elements of the problem
must be addressed or else none of them will be resolved.

Senator Salazar
continued by saying we should not allow a law to go into effect unless it is in
the national interest and said this amendment will help improve the bill. The
Senator said that the Isakson amendment would gut the underlying bill.

Senator Kennedy voiced his support for the Salazar amendment. He argued
that the Isakson amendment does nothing to deal with undocumented workers or
employment verification and reiterated his belief that immigration reform must
be addressed in a "comprehensive way." The Senator said he was open to having
the National Guard on the border, but stated that the government had, for years,
put money into border security and yet there were more people than ever
illegally crossing the border.

Senator Cornyn stood up in favor of the
Isakson amendment and said the first thing we need to do is secure the border.
He said that we can't wave a magic wand and suddenly train all of the new Border
Patrol agents, build infrastructure, and create new secure ID cards. This will
take time, he said. "We shouldn't put the cart before the horse."

Senator Chambliss spoke in favor of the Isakson amendment and said he
was proud to be a co-sponsor of it. He said we all now know that the 1986 bill,
which closely mirrors S.2611, did not work. If we are going down the same path
as 1986, he said, shouldn't we ask what went wrong? Senator Chambliss stated
that the problem with the 1986 bill was that it was one sided: status was
changed but enforcement never came. That's why, he argued, Senator Isakson's
amendment was so important.

Senator Durbin, echoing Senator Craig's
remarks, said: "The President gets it." Senator Durbin cited the increase in
border security spending over the past 10 years and argued that if border
security alone was sufficient, the number of illegal immigrants would not have
grown as it has.

Senator Thune spoke in favor of the Isakson amendment
and stated that he was a co-sponsor of it. He said the amendment had a simple
concept and represented a sound approach. "We need to secure our borders," he
said. "The American people expect us to have a secure border."

Senator
Isakson argued that his amendment would not gut the bill and that, in fact, it
did nothing to change the underlying bill; it didn't delete one word. It simply
provided that a legalization program could not be implemented until the
enforcement provisions are implemented.

Roll call votes were taken on
the Isakson and Salazar amendments. The Isakson amendment failed, 40-55. The
Salazar amendment passed, 79-16.

Senator Dorgan then offered amendment
#4017, to repeal the guest worker program in S.2611 (Title IV).
The Senator
stated that if you read the paper or see the news, you see the new corporate
strategy everywhere: export good jobs and import cheap labor. This, he said, was
probably a good strategy for profits, but a horrible strategy for America. We
built the middle class with good jobs and good wages, he said.

"What if
the U.S. had no immigration laws at all?" Senator Dorgan asked. Massive numbers
of immigrants would come. It is not selfish, he said, to be somewhat protective
of our standard of living and our way of life. There are many voices here
speaking for immigrants, but we have a responsibility to our citizens and there
is precious little talk about them in this chamber these days. "Let me speak for
a moment on behalf of American workers."

Senator Dorgan decried the
argument that "guest workers" are needed to take the jobs Americans won't do. He
argued that Americans want these jobs and are doing these jobs. The Senator
criticized the 325,000 cap coupled with the automatic 20% escalator provision.
He stated that this formula would result in 10 million guest workers in 10
years. He concluded that the guest worker provision of the bill wasn't about
filling empty jobs, but was about "importing cheap labor." The Senator said that
guest workers could more appropriately be termed "low wage replacement workers."

Senator Specter spoke out against the Dorgan amendment. He said he
agreed with the argument that these are jobs Americans won't do, although he
said it perhaps was not universally true.

Senator Boxer stood up in
favor of the Dorgan amendment. She said while she felt there was a need for
agricultural guest workers found in the AgJOBS portion of the bill, the guest
worker program in Title IV was entirely too open-ended. She said she did not
believe the argument that these were jobs Americans won't do, adding that these
jobs are already being done in large part by Americans. Senator Boxer argued
that if the guest worker provision were taken out, the bill would be better for
it.

Senator Sessions also spoke in favor of the Dorgan amendment. He
argued that there was nothing "temporary" about the guest worker program. The
guest workers can apply for a green card through their employers the first day
they are here. Or, after four years, they can apply for a green card on their
own. He explained that with a beginning annual cap of 325,000 combined with an
automatic 20% escalator, the increase in immigration is "extraordinary." He
urged his colleagues to think seriously about what they are doing.

Senator McCain opposed the Dorgan amendment. He thanked President Bush
for his speech Monday night and said the President gave an outstanding depiction
of the situation in the U.S. The Senator said he agreed with the President's
statement that all elements of the immigration problem need to be addressed or
none will be solved at all.

Senator McCain then stated that the reason
the 1986 bill didn't work was because it did not have a guest worker program. He
said our population is getting older, restaurants are locking their doors
because there is no one to serve the food. We need a viable guest worker program
to stop the flow of illegal aliens, he said. He compared the immigration crisis
to the so-called "war on drugs" and said that like drugs, there would always be
a demand for foreign workers.

Yet no one should mistake this for another
Bracero program, said Senator McCain. One of the biggest evils of illegal
immigration is how innocent people are exploited. He said that the guest worker
program was a fundamental part of the bill—if this is taken out, the country
will be faced with the same economic pressures of the past.

Senator
Specter moved to table the Dorgan amendment. The motion prevailed, 69-28.

Senator Bingaman then offered amendment #3981. He explained that his
amendment would reduce the cap on the guest worker program from 325,000 to
200,000 and also eliminate the automatic escalator provision if the cap is
reached. He compared the guest worker formula found in S.2611 to compound
interest, but instead called it "compound immigration." He displayed a chart
showing that if the bill were passed as originally drafted, skyrocketing numbers
of guest workers would enter the U.S. over a relatively short span of six years.
On top of this, he said, the guest worker provision has no sunset so the
increase goes on indefinitely. The Senator argued that his amendment was not a
drastic provision and that it would not undercut the bill. He said his amendment
would improve the legislation.

Senator Feinstein spoke in favor of the
Bingaman amendment. She stated that all automatic escalators in the bill should
be deleted because they bring in too many people over a relatively short period
of time. The Senator said the bill, as drafted, would double or triple the
number of foreign workers over six years. A cap of 200,000 for the H-2C worker
was ample, especially since workers may be admitted under other parts of the
bill, such as the AgJOBS provision or the provision that increases H-1B workers.

Senator Boxer also spoke in favor of the Bingaman amendment. She
predicted that "the guest worker bill will come back to haunt us."

Senator Specter opposed the Bingaman amendment. He stated the 325,000
cap on H-2C workers was the result of compromise. "This legislation," he said,
"is trying to accommodate the market." The fluctuating escalator, therefore, is
more important than the difference between 325,000 and 400,000 (the original cap
on the H-2C program). He argued that prominent economists had testified that the
impact on workers and wages would be minimal and that the legislation has been
carefully constructed to protect U.S. workers.

Senator Specter moved to
table the Bingaman amendment. The motion failed, 18-79. The Bingaman amendment
then passed on a voice vote.

Senator Specter then announced that
amendments authored by Senators Kerry, Kyl, Obama, and Sessions would be
considered on Wednesday. He said while there would be no roll call votes during
the rest of the day, members could speak to their amendments.

Senator
Kerry offered amendment #3999. Senator Kerry stated that there are currently
about 12,000 Border Patrol agents to cover 8,000 miles on the border. He added
that if you took into account the need for 24-hour patrols and night shifts,
there were only about 4,000 agents guarding the 8,000 mile border at any given
time. This, he said, was not enough. Senator Kerry explained that his amendment
increased the Border Patrol by 1,000 agents during this year and allowed
governors from border states to request additional agents from DHS during
emergencies. The amendment also increases helicopters and power boats for the
border patrol and provides agents training to use them. Senator Kerry said this
addition was needed for an immediate addition of agents.

Senator Reid
spoke out in favor of the Kerry amendment and there was no further debate. The
amendment passed on a voice vote.

Senator Kyl offered amendment #4027.
This amendment provides that aliens with a felony conviction or three
misdemeanor convictions are ineligible for amnesty. The amendment also makes
aliens who have not left the country in accordance with a deportation order
ineligible for amnesty.

Senator McCain spoke in favor of the Kyl
amendment, stating that it made the bill better.

Senator Graham also
spoke in favor of the bill, saying that they wanted to create a path to
citizenship that is earned. He thought the provisions that allowed exceptions
for lack of notice or hardship were fair. Senator Graham said the amendment made
the bill better.

Senators Cornyn and Kyl both stressed that they had
negotiated on the amendment in good faith and showed they could work to improve
the bill.

Further debate on the Kyl amendment was postponed until
Wednesday.

Senator Inhofe then offered an amendment to make English the
official language in the United States and to require all official business to
be conducted in English. He described the need for aliens to assimilate into
American society. The Senator cited polls in which a large majority of Hispanics
stated they felt learning English was necessary to being successful in the U.S.

Further debate on the Inhofe amendment was postponed until Wednesday.

The Senate adjourned around 7pm Tuesday. The Senate will reconvene at
9:15 Wednesday morning.

Stay tuned for more updates on Senate action
from FAIR.
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And the US Senate still fiddles while America is invaded! I say its time for WAR WITH MEXCIO.