Media Back Amnesty Bill
By Accuracy In Media: Andy Selepak (05/19/07)
In order to counteract Big Media support for the amnesty-for-illegals bill, Congress needs to hear from the American people.
The Washington Post, in an editorial, calls the Bush-Kennedy bill a "breakthrough." Yet, by the admission of the White House, it commits the U.S. to finishing only 370 miles of the border fence.
Rep. Duncan Hunter declared, "The Senate's decision to blatantly ignore the Secure Fence Act signed into law last year and only require construction of 370 miles of fence, as opposed to the 854 miles mandated by the law, is a dramatic failure of this legislation. The San Diego border fence has proven that fencing works. The time has come to quickly implement the Secure Fence Act, not retreat from its mandates."
In the Republican debate, Hunter revealed, "I called up the other day, and they've done two miles of border fence."
Roy Beck, President of Numbers USA, warns, "Many senators are telling staffers and other senators that they are inclined to vote for the giant Kennedy/Bush amnesty bill (S. 1348)…because they say they have been surprised at how few phone calls of protest they've gotten during the last two months of highly-publicized negotiations to create the amnesty."
Beck continues that senators "are concluding that the citizens of their states just aren't all that worked up about granting an amnesty. And they're interpreting that as a green light to give corporations the huge new supplies of legal foreign labor they desire."
Beck believes that senators are counting the number of phone calls they receive to decide if they will approve the amnesty bill.
The phone number for the Capitol Hill Operator is 202-224-3121. You can ask to be connected to your senators or congressman.
Beck says the bill includes:
- An immediate amnesty for nearly all 12-20 million illegal aliens who will get legal status for residence and jobs (with assurance of green cards no later than 13 years);
- An increase in the number of green cards (for permanent settlement) by 20 million over the next 13 years. This means 30-35 million green cards in just the next 13 years!
- Raising the number of green card holders in our communities from 25 million to 60 million in just the next 13 years!
- Supposed "mandatory workplace verification" and extra enforcement (with a lot of typical Kennedy loopholes) to try to slow the flow of the next 12 million illegal aliens enticed by the amnesty;
- A tripling of the rate of chain migration of extended family members from around 250,000 a year to around 750,000 a year for about a decade;
- 400,000 temporary foreign workers each year, bringing their families and having "anchor babies" who will be given U.S. citizenship.
Although the majority of Republican senators last year voted against the amnesty bill that passed, at the moment, according to Beck, the only Republican senators who can be counted on to oppose the new amnesty bill are DeMint (SC), Enzi (WY), Crapo (ID), Vitter (LA), Allard (CO), Sessions (AL), Chambliss (GA), and Grassley (IA).
It will take 41 senators to block a vote on the bill. Right now there are only eight.
On the House side, there is more reason for hope. Rep. Edward Royce, who has drawn attention to provisions in a House version of the bill that creates a North American Union of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, has denounced it as amnesty.
Royce declared, "The Senate bill will provide amnesty to those here illegally, no matter how the senators 'spin' the issue. Amnesty failed in 1986, as it prompted a massive increase in illegal immigration with the anticipation of future clemency. Amnesty says that individuals need not respect our laws, it awards people who break the law and flout our sovereignty."
In terms of the financial costs, Royce says, "Perhaps the most staggering issue is the cost. Amnesty will cost the American taxpayer two-and-a-half trillion dollars. The true costs of this amnesty will slam taxpayers and endanger this country's economy at a time when social security will face insolvency. When all the senators who played politics and passed this bill are gone, our Social Security system will be bankrupt. The Heritage Foundation recently released a report that analyzes what low-skilled households cost the U.S. taxpayer. For every dollar they pay in taxes they get three dollars in benefits. The drain on the U.S. economy will be
unsustainable."
Rep. Hunter adds, "Amnesty is not the answer. Border enforcement must be first and it must be comprehensive. To do otherwise is to repeat the mistakes of the past. This Senate bill is bad for Americans, bad for our workers, bad for law enforcement and, most importantly, bad for national security. I will fight it."
Andy Selepak, a writer at Accuracy in Media, is the author of the study, New Evidence of Liberal Media Bias, published as an AIM Report.
http://www.aim.org/media_monitor/5469_0_2_0_C/
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