Why the Senate Immigration Bill Failed — The Politics of the Immigration Issue Have Changed Forever, says FAIR
The Age of “Inside the Beltway” Exclusivity in
Immigration Policy Is Gone
Washington DC — Today, the Senate failed to invoke
cloture on a key vote that effectively kills the
immigration bill for this Congress, says the Federation
for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). The cloture vote
was the second this week and it sought to set a time
limit on debate prior to a vote on final passage. The
vote 46-53 was in opposition to cloture. This was an
historic defeat for those who favor the status quo
coupled with ineffective law enforcement, and represents
a dramatic change in the politics of the national
immigration issue forever. Public opposition was so
great that the Senate phone system was entirely shut
down, according to the Sergeant-at-Arms today.
Why did this bill fail? “National immigration politics
have changed forever”, says FAIR’s National President
Dan Stein, “and the American people are engaged.” “The
integrated lobbying strategy involving talk radio hosts
across the nation, e-mail, phone calls, internet and
local grassroots activism have all combined to enlighten
the average American in ways unimaginable as recently as
1996,” says Stein, “and people know intimate details
about pending legislation and are acting on that
information — by the millions. They know it was weak,
impractical and unfair in the extreme. It is the
American people who will now lead this debate with
enlightened immigration politics that serve the
interests of future generations of Americans, not the
usual battery of self serving interests.”
Failure to establish a credible enforcement strategy.
The American people are no longer fooled by the same
tricks and meddling tactics that have been used by
professional politicians since 1980 — self defeating
border enforcement strategies and a set of laws
virtually unenforced in the interior, while states
continue to provide taxpayer benefits to illegal
aliens, no questions asked. The 1986 legislation
failed because the same special interests that
dominated the development of this legislation have
worked to thwart enforcement for 20 years.
Failure to create true deterrence for employers and
the major financial interests that have promoted
abuses for years. For reasons known only to
influential lawmakers like Senator Kennedy, under
his leadership and those like him,
"It is time for action. 2007 is the year we
must fix our broken system."
the Congress has repeatedly blinked in the face of
pressures from the Chamber of Commerce to give major
employers a free pass, decade after decade. These
employers are the major magnet attracting illegal aliens
here.
Failure to consult organizations representing American
citizens on the immigration issue. The “Gang of Twelve”
that crafted the so-called Senate compromise failed to
include as stakeholders organizations representing
average Americans. Self-appointed ethnic lobbies and
organizations that have demanded subsidized foreign
labor dominated the initial process of assembling this
legislation.
Linking the reassertion of credibility in the
immigration control system to a mass amnesty,
insultingly dated January 1, 2007. The idea that a
massive guest worker and administratively complex
amnesty program is somehow essential to reasserting
credibility in the immigration control apparatus was an
insult to the American people. The Bush administration
has missed virtually every deadline set by Congress for
the assertion of immigration controls since September
11, 2001. The President has lost credibility because he
has repeatedly promised enforcement for political
reasons and then retrenched the moment the cameras left
the room. This President — whose repeated pronouncements
since 2000 have encouraged the greatest tidal wave of
illegal immigration in American history — is not the
person to convince the American people that we need a
mass amnesty or that a mass amnesty will generate
effective enforcement.
Failing to educate the American people about the needs
for reform that cuts back immigration and renders the
system enforceable. The Senate failed to address the
recommendations that have been made repeatedly about how
to limit immigration and rendered enforceable — going
back as 1980. The arguments in favor of a merit system
were not properly framed by the proponents, including
the need to develop an enforceable immigration selection
system under an annual, reviewable and enforceable cap.
The arguments against chain migration — as driving
incessant annual increases in unskilled immigration,
generating unmanageable backlogs and thwarting the
general public’s ability to decide who and how many come
each year — were never fully developed.
“The American people have raised their voices
collectively in outrage over this blatant assault on
core values and rule of law — the values that tie this
diverse society together as a nation,” Stein concluded.
