News
Jun 09 2007
Death of ‘amnesty’ Bill Hailed
WASHINGTON -- As the White House held out hope an immigration reform effort could be revived, members of Oklahoma's congressional delegation on Friday celebrated the apparent death of a controversial proposal.
"May it rest in peace," Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe said, predicting only an incremental approach to the contentious issue would work now.
"I think it is good that it went down in flames."
Inhofe said President Bush was ill-advised to get behind a bill that, in the senator's opinion, focused too much on granting legal status to those already here illegally and not enough on border security.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., pulled the immigration bill -- designed to fix a broken immigration system and offer legal status to millions of undocumented workers -- from the Senate floor late Thursday after it repeatedly failed to get past key procedural votes.
Inhofe said the bill actually was dead two weeks ago when it came out of closed-door talks "with an immediate path to amnesty" for the millions of immigrants who entered the country illegally and continue to stay.
He praised the immigration bill's defeat even though he was able to attach an amendment designed to make English the national language.
Inhofe laid out plans to push his amendment as a free-standing bill soon.
Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., has a competing amendment that also was approved by the Senate.
Despite the last procedural vote that showed supporters remained 15 votes short of the 60 needed to cut off debate on the embattled bill, the White House repeatedly indicated Friday it believed the bill could be brought back up.
"We're encouraging Reid, Senator Reid, to keep the debate open," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said, according to a tran script provided by the White House.
Bush used his weekly radio address to speak on the issue again, and the White House put out a fact sheet on the issue.
This fact sheet addresses the "Top 10 Common Myths" about the bill, including one claiming it is amnesty, probably the biggest hurdle the legislation would have to overcome to become law.
"This proposal is not amnesty because illegal workers must acknowledge that they broke the law, pay a $1,000 fine, and undergo criminal background checks to obtain a Z visa granting temporary legal status," it states.
Clearly, members of Oklahoma's congressional delegation were not buying the White House line.
"The failure of this amnesty bill is a victory for fairness, and the rule of law," Republican Sen. Tom Coburn said.
"Though there were good provisions in the bill, such as a merit-based immigration system, the overall bill would have been harmful to our nation and would have done nothing to solve our problems with illegal immigration."
Republican Rep. John Sullivan said he was pleased the Senate rejected amnesty legislation.
"It is irresponsible for Congress to even consider legislation which would provide a path to citizenship or a guest worker program for the 12 (million) to 20 million illegal aliens currently in the U.S. before our borders are secure and our interior immigration laws are enforced," Sullivan said.
"May it rest in peace," Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe said, predicting only an incremental approach to the contentious issue would work now.
"I think it is good that it went down in flames."
Inhofe said President Bush was ill-advised to get behind a bill that, in the senator's opinion, focused too much on granting legal status to those already here illegally and not enough on border security.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., pulled the immigration bill -- designed to fix a broken immigration system and offer legal status to millions of undocumented workers -- from the Senate floor late Thursday after it repeatedly failed to get past key procedural votes.
Inhofe said the bill actually was dead two weeks ago when it came out of closed-door talks "with an immediate path to amnesty" for the millions of immigrants who entered the country illegally and continue to stay.
He praised the immigration bill's defeat even though he was able to attach an amendment designed to make English the national language.
Inhofe laid out plans to push his amendment as a free-standing bill soon.
Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., has a competing amendment that also was approved by the Senate.
Despite the last procedural vote that showed supporters remained 15 votes short of the 60 needed to cut off debate on the embattled bill, the White House repeatedly indicated Friday it believed the bill could be brought back up.
"We're encouraging Reid, Senator Reid, to keep the debate open," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said, according to a tran script provided by the White House.
Bush used his weekly radio address to speak on the issue again, and the White House put out a fact sheet on the issue.
This fact sheet addresses the "Top 10 Common Myths" about the bill, including one claiming it is amnesty, probably the biggest hurdle the legislation would have to overcome to become law.
"This proposal is not amnesty because illegal workers must acknowledge that they broke the law, pay a $1,000 fine, and undergo criminal background checks to obtain a Z visa granting temporary legal status," it states.
Clearly, members of Oklahoma's congressional delegation were not buying the White House line.
"The failure of this amnesty bill is a victory for fairness, and the rule of law," Republican Sen. Tom Coburn said.
"Though there were good provisions in the bill, such as a merit-based immigration system, the overall bill would have been harmful to our nation and would have done nothing to solve our problems with illegal immigration."
Republican Rep. John Sullivan said he was pleased the Senate rejected amnesty legislation.
"It is irresponsible for Congress to even consider legislation which would provide a path to citizenship or a guest worker program for the 12 (million) to 20 million illegal aliens currently in the U.S. before our borders are secure and our interior immigration laws are enforced," Sullivan said.
