Airborne Combat Engineer

Numbers USA gets credit

“Numbers USA initiated and turbocharged the populist revolt against the immigration reform package,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, a pro-immigrant advocacy group.

Numbers USA had fewer than 50,000 members at the end of 2004, but now counts more than 447,000, with an increase of 83 percent since January alone.

Turning to the next phase of the debate, those members will push for enforcement of existing laws and new measures to curb the employment of illegal immigrants.

“Our No. 1 legislative goal is to begin a system of mandatory workplace verification, to confirm that every employee is a United States citizen or an alien authorized to work in this country,” said Rosemary E. Jenks, director of government relations at Numbers USA.

RP / New York Times

A-C-E linked to numerous Numbers USA articles during the immigration bill battle.

Read about the damage to President Bush in the continuation.

Why aren't existing immigration laws enforced?

Advocates for the legal process through which immigrants arrive in the United States, fresh from a successful battle in Washington to defeat President Bush's comprehensive immigration reform proposal, say they will be returning – to lobby for a criminal investigation into the government's failure to enforce existing immigration laws.

"We plan to return to Washington in the next week or two, and light up the phone lines again," said William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration-PAC, which was a key partner in the grass-roots campaign that triggered the recent defeat of the immigration plan.

"We're going to put pressure on Congress, not to stop a bill, but to demand that Congress launch an immediate investigation into the White House to determine what criminal prosecutions may be warranted relating to not enforcing our existing laws," he said.

World Net Daily

Meanwhile, the WSJ is still pushing for open borders. [JunkYardBlog]

How citizens felled the Immigration/Amnesty Bill

BEWARE of an aroused citizenry. Senators got a reminder in the humiliating defeat of a "comprehensive" immigration bill that had the support of the president of the United States, a bipartisan group of senators with the blessing of the leaders of their caucuses and the support of the editorial boards of the country's most important newspapers.

As the techno-populists dissected the bill, its senatorial supporters mustered their most off-putting imperial pique. Mississippi Republican Trent Lott rued that talk radio was "running the country." Ohio Republican Sen. George Voinovich went on the Sean Hannity radio show and complained that he was being "intimidated" because people were calling his office opposing the bill.

Even the procedural shenanigans that the bill's supporters relied on to try to get it through were subject to the intense glare of publicity. Instead of helping the bill's cause - as such arcane maneuvers would have in the past - they hurt it by adding to the sense of chaos and unfairness around the process.

There is really no such thing as an "inside game" anymore, since bloggers make sure it gets "outside." Both the right and the left will take advantage of this, for good and ill policy ends. But it's clearly an enhancement of democracy. Senators should get used to it, and buy more phone lines.

Rich Lowery, NY Post

Immigration/Amnesty bill goes down, 46 yea, 53 no

Hooah! Not even close to 60. The MAJORITY voted against "shamnesty" (as MM calls it).

If you helped make this happen, thank you! A special thanks to the talk show hosts and bloggers (big and small) who kept this in the forefront.

This should restore (somewhat) our faith in our representative form of government.

The next step should be legislation which focuses on shutting down illegal immigration. After that has proven effective, we can find a practical way to absorb those illegal aliens who have shown themselves to be solid contributors to our society.

Sen. Jim DeMint said it better, in the continuation. (Also see roll call vote there)

Final cloture vote on Immigration Amnesty bill ~ 10:30 DST

With his caucus bitterly divided and the Senate descending into procedural warfare, Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) stayed away from the Senate floor as the most sweeping overhaul of immigration laws in 21 years hung in the balance.

Conservatives also railed all day on the process used by Senate leaders to bring the bill to the floor. But Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and other Democrats wasted no opportunity to point out that the arcane procedural tactic, which limited debate to a pre-negotiated list of  27 amendments, was worked out with McConnell.

Yesterday the Senate moved methodically through the list of amendments in advance of a decisive vote today to shut down debate and move to a final vote on the bill’s passage.

The Hill  Senator Session's summary on U-Tube

Senators Vitter (LA), Bunning (KY) and Sessions (AL) get an A for effort.

This morning is your last chance to swing enough votes to kill this bill.

There will be a protest rally in Atlanta at 10AM, and many others across the country.

Annotated links in the continuation

Truer words were never misspoken

Speaking to government officials and others in an auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next door to the White House, Bush said: "You know, I've heard all the rhetoric — you've heard it too — about how this is amnesty. Amnesty means that you've got to pay a price for having been here illegally, and this bill does that."

Before lunchtime, presidential spokesman Tony Snow dispatched a what-the-president-meant-to-say e-mail to reporters: "Today, in speaking about comprehensive immigration reform, President Bush misspoke."

LA Times

Another cloture vote – this one to bring debate to a close (and, again, for which a “YES” vote will be considered as a vote for amnesty) – is slated for Thursday, June 28.

"It looks like we have at least 8 Senators who voted YES for the amnesty today who are saying privately that they don’t like the bill and are leaning toward voting NO on the Thursday cloture vote. If you can talk 5 of those 8 (or any of the rest of the 64) into switching to NO on Thursday and persuade the 35 NO votes from today to hold, we will kill the bill."

Polipundit (e-mail from Numbers USA)

If one of those 8 Senators is in your state, it's especially important that you contact them!

Or, Grassfire will shotgun fax for you, for a nominal fee.

More annotated immigration links in the continuation

Two days to change five votes

"Well, the open borders 'n' amnesty crowd won the first round with room to spare. They needed 60 votes and they got 64. John Hawkins @ Right Wing News lists all those who voted for cloture.

We have two days to turn 5 of these senators around and convince them that they shouldn't sell out America.

Some of these senators may drop off if an amendment they support isn't voted on or if it loses a vote."

There will be another cloture vote on Thursday. Richard Miniter @ Pajamas Media predicted how Reid would proceed.

“I’m going to do everything that I can do to make sure that this bill never leaves the Senate,” Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said. “There are a lot of things that we haven’t used yet that we haven’t used in hundreds of years around here, that are going to come up.” [The Hill]

Call, e-mail, or fax your Senators.

House Republicans unveiled a resolution expressing their disapproval of the Senate immigration bill. It was offered by Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), and simply read: “resolved the House GOP Conference disapproves of the Senate immigration bill.” [The Hill]

Immigration (amnesty) bill cloture vote ~ 11:30AM DST

(June 26) A roll call vote on whether to bring S. 1639, the “corrected and updated” version of S. 1348, to the floor is scheduled for today at some point after 11:30 a.m. On this matter, a senator’s “YES” vote on cloture is equivalent to a vote for amnesty.

If you have time, you can watch the live debate on C-Span.

CLICK HERE to visit the Senate Vote Day Action Center for more information on the "compromise" bill, S. 1639 (formerly S. 1348).

Numbers USA

Americans for Legal Immigration will report the result of the vote.

Be sure to let your Senators know how you feel. [See how in the continuation, and which Senators are expected to vote yes for cloture]. If you're like the majority of Americans (see results of polls in the continuation), you don't believe this bill will solve the problem.

Annotated links to articles and blog posts in the continuation

Little known aspects of Immigration Bill II

For those who elect to not read the text of the second version of the Immigration Bill [S. 1369], Slobokan points out some aspects of it which are not being widely reported in the MSM.

Most strange is the inclusion of a study of treatment of Italians, Germans, European Americans, and Jews in WWII (with the implication reparations will be recommended). Who slipped that in there?

Contact your Senators this weekend or Monday AM!  JH @ Right Wing News tells how in the continuation.

Radio talk shows, blogs impacting immigration bill

Conservative talk radio's impact on the immigration debate reached new heights last week, with one host effectively writing an amendment for when the Senate returns to the imperiled bill this week.

National talk-show hosts have spent months denouncing the bill as providing amnesty for illegal immigrants. Some top Republicans who support the legislation have defied the broadcast pundits. Other GOP lawmakers have tried to placate them, even to the point of accepting their ideas for amendments.

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., the key conservative negotiator behind the compromise bill, said Friday that California-based radio host Hugh Hewitt "had several ideas" that "we are trying to include" in amendments to be offered in an upcoming series of crucial votes.

[CB/AP]

Your Senators are hearing your objections, and some are having second thoughts. Keep up the calls and faxes.

Two (of many) examples of Senators under pressure and annotated links re. the Amnesty Bill in the continuation