No Immigration Bill This Year
Written by Sam on June 20th, 2006Well, I guess no bill isn’t so bad considering what could have happened if something had passed. We could have ended up with the McCain-Kennedy bill which would pretty much have put the final nail in the coffin of the beginning of America’s downfall as far as I am concerned. What worries me is that they might drudge this up again next year since there will be no elections in 2007 and some of the House members might be more inclined to pass the McCain bill in that environment.
WASHINGTON - In a defeat for President Bush, Republican congressional leaders said Tuesday that broad immigration legislation is all but doomed for the year, a victim of election-year concerns in the House and conservatives’ implacable opposition to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants.
“Our number one priority is to secure the border, and right now I haven’t heard a lot of pressure to have a path to citizenship,” said Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., announcing plans for an unusual series of hearings to begin in August on Senate-passed immigration legislation.
“I think it is easy to say the first priority of the House is to secure the borders,” added Rep. Roy Blunt, the GOP whip.
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I think anyone with half a brain can agree that passing the enforcement measures only would be better than passing the amnesty measures only or passing no bill at all. Yet I get the feeling that since the House bill isn’t “comprehensive” enough, the Senate and Bush will back off the issue completely and just chose to ignore the issue and blame the House. If the Senate can’t get over its ego enough to take up the enforcement-only House bill, and Bush does not push such an action, I think it will say a lot about the political abyss that is Washington, D.C.