![]()
GOOD WORK YESTERDAY, FRIENDS.
1. You made the phone calls into the House of Representatives yesterday to let them know you knew about the surprise amendment to pass a test amnesty. I think you caught them off guard. In the end, the amendment was pulled from consideration!
Thanks to all of you who turned your attention from the Senate for a few moments and made those calls into the House. (More about this below.)
2. Under pressure from your tens of thousands of phone calls (and many more faxes), 43 Senators yesterday cast a clear vote for full border security before any work permits and other legalization for illegal aliens.
Key importance here is that only 57 Senators voted in favor of the bill's current format of amnesty-first. Only 57? That's way too many but it is three short of the 60 that will be needed to stop a filibuster on a final vote on the S. 744 amnesty bill. This is a first glimpse of the possibility of defeating this bill in a couple of weeks. (More about this below.)
![]() Send New Faxes |
|---|
We have placed a lot of specialized fax and other action opportunities on your Action Boards.
One of the special powers of NumbersUSA grassroots activism has always been that you not only urge particular votes but you immediately comment after politicians vote. It keeps them on their toes because it shows that citizens are watching, that they remember and that there can be consequences for how one votes.
Nearly all of you will find one or more new actions. If you don't, look further down in this email for some things you may want to do.
|
|
NON-GANG REPUBLICANS NEARLY UNANIMOUS IN SUPPORT FOR BORDER-SECURITY-FIRST AMENDMENT
Don't read too much into this vote, but it was a very good sign that 41 of the 46 Republicans voted against the pro-amnesty side on the amendment by Sen. Grassley (R-Iowa) that would have required certification that the border is fully secured for six months before any of the 11 million illegal aliens would be eligible to receive legal status and work permits.
41 is a magic number. On a final filibuster vote on a bill, 41 NO votes kills the entire bill.
The Gang's S. 744 bill doesn't require any border security before giving legal status and work permits. And its promises of border efforts over the next 10 years are full of loopholes and waivers.
The Gang of Eight insisted on "tabling" Grassley's amendment so it couldn't even be debated or directly voted on.
I don't know what could be clearer to Senators on the fence that there is no pretending that this bill is serious about border security, especially when the pro-amnesty folks said requiring border security first might mean that illegal aliens never get their amnesty.
"This is a very provocative act," Grassley said in decrying the ending of a promised open amendment process on the very first day of amendments. The Democratic leadership's move on this definitely inspired some strong partisan bickering.
Tabling is generally a maneuver to kill something without a politician having to be blamed for it. I hope you won't hesitate to assign blame, though.
Adding two more votes against tabling and for border security were Democrats:
Sen. Manchin (W.Va.)
Sen. Pryor (Ark.)
JUST DINING WITH A GANG MEMBER, or cooking up mischief?
A bit disconcerting later in the day was seeing two of the Republican Senators who voted for border-security-first sharing a booth and dinner at a Hill restaurant with Gang member Sen. Graham. They weren't chit-chatting but engaged in spirited conversation about immigration.
There have been too many rumors about the two of them working on some magic border security amendment that might give a number of Republicans cover to vote for the amnesty without actually slowing down the legalization of the illegal aliens.
LOTS OF DEMOCRATS WHO CLAIM TO BE BIG ENFORCEMENT-FIRST SUPPORTERS VOTED TO KILL BORDER-SECURITY-FIRST AMENDMENT
All Democrats voted to table (kill) border-security-first, except Sen. Manchin (W.Va.) and Sen. Pryor (Ark.).
All kinds of Democrats have repeatedly state that border security is a priority with them -- especially those in states that voted Republican last year. But most of them ended up voting to table the amendment.
Because there were sharp partisan words in the bickering over whether this amendment would need just 51 votes to pass -- as is customary -- or if it would be treated like a final vote and need 60, we are hopeful that several of the following list of Democrats were more sticking with their Party on a procedural vote than tipping their hand that they will vote for this amnesty on the final roll call.
But part of the argument that Democratic leaders were making against the Grassley amendment was that if it passed the illegal aliens might never get their amnesty -- which pretty much makes the point that nobody expects the bill's provisions to secure the border.
Democrats who say they are big on border security but voted against really having it:
All are Democrats who have NOT committed to vote YES on the final bill and are thought to be swing votes. At least some of these will be essential for killing the overall bill to make up for any Republicans who were among the 41 on Thursday but who switch to YES on final vote.
PUTTING OFF THE HOUSE AMNESTY BATTLE TO ANOTHER DAY
House Speaker Boehner (R-Ohio) has been warming the hearts of the President and quite a number of other global-labor champions by saying this week that he is intent on putting an immigration bill on the President's desk this year.
Since it is assumed that no House-passed bill could get through the Senate unless it contains an amnesty, everybody is watching to see just what kind of amnesty Boehner and other House Republican leaders decide to pitch.
We felt the surprise amendment to give an amnesty to all illegal aliens who enlist in the millitary was mainly an effort to gauge support among Republicans for larger amnesties and to get them comfortable doing so.
It was fantastic to see so many of you respond immediately to my plea for phone calls yesterday morning. At the same time, our Capitol Hill Team notified Representatives that we would grade the amendment on the defense authorization bill as an amnesty vote.
I think many Representatives were quite surprised to have you telling them about something they may not have learned about yet.
A combination of circumstances led to the amendment being pulled before it could be voted on.
We will be vigilant and inform you as soon as we learn of the next attempt in the House.
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment