Immigration Update: Remember the Embers

An amnesty bill for 12-20 million illegal aliens will be back. But when?

The Seattle Times quotes:

"Immigration is going to have to wait until we get a new president and a new Congress," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said after a 46-53 procedural vote Thursday derailed efforts to move the bill toward final passage.

It's now more likely that if immigration reform is ever passed, it will not be one large, comprehensive bill but a series of small bills dealing with each aspect (border security, guest worker program, etc.).

If immigration reform doesn't happen in the House or the Senate, Americans won't wait on Washington. The Salt Lake Tribune reports:

Utah political and community leaders say that the demise of an immigration reform bill in the U.S. Senate on Thursday, a defeat that could push back an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws beyond 2008, could mean one thing: The states will continue to be stuck dealing with immigration woes.

Anyway, if amnesty is as popular as the Senate spins it, check THIS out:

Eleven senators - four Democrats and seven Republicans - who voted in favor of last year's Senate immigration bill, which died in the House, voted against this year's version. All of them are up for re-election in 2008.

Comments

[Chris, Maryland]

From the linked article: "Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said attitudes appear to have changed since he "felt so welcome" arriving in the USA as a Cuban refugee. "I hope that the day will return," he said, "when we will once again think about immigration not as something to tolerate but as something to be proud of." "

I don't understand why our Commerce Secretary doesn't understand the difference between legal and illegal. Otherwise, I certainly used to be much more proud of our immigration heritage, but the current situation is wholly unsatisfactory. Maybe if he got on board with enforcing our laws and supporting assimilation instead of pushing for a bi-lingual balkanized Nation, the welcome mat would come back out.