As a part of their quest for the mythical "70th vote," Senate Democrats have been willing to allow the already conservative "compromise" immigration bill to continue to drift rightward. From the beginning of the debate, Senate Democrats and the President basically admitted that they are willing to vote a bill--any bill--as long as it still has a path to citizenship, no matter how tortuous or punitive it would end up. Doing so set the stage for the GOP to make as many demands as they want, confident that the Democrats will concede. The latest concession was the embrace of the Corker-Hoeven amendment, which has been described as a "border surge."
Surge? Who knew we were at war with Mexico?
And the quest for the mythical 70th vote is likely to prove fruitless. The Senate just voted 68 to 32 to close debate and to vote on the final bill itself, a vote scheduled for 4 PM this afternoon.
The Gang of Eight bill itself was fairly conservative, with the guest worker program, the tech company giveaways, the tortuous and punitive path to citizenship, etc. However, with the Corker-Hoeven amendment that Democrats accepted into the bill, it has only moved even more rightward.
Corker's website describes the bill in the following way:
The Hoeven-Corker Southern Border Security Amendment would double the number of agents on the Mexican border and require implementation of a tough new border security plan along the nearly 2,000 mile southern border before unlawful immigrants already in the country could be eligible for Lawful Permanent Residence (LPR) or Green Card status 10 years after enactment. The border security plan is based on the U.S. Border Patrol’s assessment of what the agency would need to maximally secure the nation’s southern border.
The amendment also strengthens interior enforcement by requiring that officials enforce current immigration law and deter overstays by initiating removal proceedings for at least 90 percent of visa overstays.
Ten years after enactment, the senators’ measure requires all five of the following conditions to be met before LPR, or a Green Card status, could be granted:
The Department of Homeland Security, after consultation with the Attorney General, the Secretary of Defense, the Inspector General of the Department, and the Comptroller General of the United States (GAO), has submitted a Comprehensive Southern Border Security Strategy to Congress that includes minimum requirements for each sector along the border as identified by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and the plan has been deployed and is operational.
The Border Patrol has deployed, maintained, and stationed 20,000 border patrol agents on the southern border in addition to the 18,500 agents already stationed there. This means an agent every 1,000 feet along the southern border.
An additional 350 miles of fencing has been completed (in addition to the 350 miles of fencing already on the ground).
The mandatory employment verification system has been fully implemented for all employers.
The mandated electronic entry/exit system has been fully implemented at all international air and sea ports of entry within the United States where U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers are currently deployed.
The Hoeven-Corker Comprehensive Southern Border Security plan is embedded in the legislation, and includes a combination of conventional security infrastructure like fencing, observation towers, fixed and mobile camera systems, helicopters and other physical surveillance equipment to the secure the border, sector by sector. The plan also includes high-tech tools like mobile surveillance systems, seismic imaging, Vader systems, infrared ground sensors, and unmanned aerial systems equipped with infrared radar cameras and long-range thermal imaging cameras.
When I read this last week, it just sounded like a bunch of border state pork and corporate welfare for defense contractors. It still does. Moreover, Democrats are foolish to believe that Republicans will ever concede that we have secured the border "enough" no matter how much is spent. The Republican Party lacks both a grounding in facts or a functioning moral compass. With all of this extra "border security" money, with the militarization of the border, 2/3 of Senate Republicans still oppose immigration reform.
House Republicans have consistently affirmed that the Senate bill, however reactionary it ends up, is still DOA. Getting 1/3 of Senate Republicans to vote for the bill isn't going to convince the Republican caucus and will not inspire Boehner to break the Hastert Rule and allow the Senate bill to pass on the strength of Democratic votes. Just look at the Farm Bill fiasco recently. The Farm Bill passed the Senate 66 to 27. 18 Senate Republicans voted for the Senate's Farm Bill---that's more than support the immigration before. And the House dragged the bill rightward and still failed to pass it.
I was happy to see this week that pro-reform groups are finally beginning to draw the line and criticize Democrats for conceding too easily. It won't change the status of the Senate bill unfortunately, which is likely to pass this afternoon; however, the pressure is needed to redirect the public debate and the outcome of legislation, whenever that may be. (I don't expect it to be this summer.)
On Monday, Latino advocacy group Presente.org sent out an email opposing the Corker-Hoeven amendment, taking a stand against the rightward drift of the legislation:
Every time a cop car passes by me in Arizona, my heart races. I've seen too many of my friends and family living in fear, not knowing for certain if they'll come home to the people they love each day or face deportation. Nobody knows we need to fix our immigration system more than me.
But as a DREAMer, I'm terrified about what's happening in Congress. An amendment to the proposed immigration bill is going to be voted on in less than an hour. If enacted it would push the current immigration bill further to the right--leaving out millions of immigrants who would never be able to meet the worsened requirements.
Can you call your Senators immediately and ask that they vote NO on the Hoeven-Corker amendment?
The amendment would also create a worsened "border trigger" before any immigrant would even be eligible for a 10-year path to citizenship.
This is what would need to happen before immigrants are given any hope of legalization: we'd need far more agents at the border than troops in Afghanistan, we'd spend billions of dollars on radar surveillance similar to what's used in Iraq, and we'd double the cost of unnecessary border enforcement to $30 billion.1 This, even though border crossings are at or below zero and experts say our border is more secure than ever.2
I'm sick of watching politicians play politics with our lives.
It takes only a minute to make a call to your Senators. Senators tally up the results of people calling their offices, and it can have a big impact on the way they vote. The anti-immigrant crowd knows this well and has been driving thousands of calls into the offices of Senators. That's why it would mean so much to me if you'd make a call asking that your Senators not throw immigrants like me under the bus.
The vote happens in less than an hour. Click here to call your Senators immediately and ask that they vote NO on the Hoeven-Corker amendment.
I don't want to explain to any more youger children why they won't see their parents any more. I don't want to say goodbye to any more friends. That's why I'm fighting. And I need your help.
Thanks for the support,
Erick Garcia
Yesterday, the
New York Times also reported on the fact that pro-reform groups are beginning to put their energy on Democrats to force them to have some backbone for once in the negotiations:
Border Security Rule Costs Bill Support
By FERNANDA SANTOS
PHOENIX — A push to assuage opposition to the bipartisan immigration bill before Congress by devoting more money and muscle to the task of securing the border with Mexico has yielded at least one unforeseen consequence: It weakened support for the bill among some pro-immigrant groups that had been its most reliable backers.
Advocates have staged protests in several cities this week denouncing a plan endorsed by the Senate to inject $40 billion in enforcement measures over the next decade, including 18,000 more Border Patrol agents and 700 more miles of the hulking steel fence that demarcates the countries.
Leaders of Presente.org, the nation’s largest online Latino advocacy organization, took the step of opposing the broader immigration bill altogether, saying in a statement they could not “in good conscience” stand by it if it is also “guaranteed to increase death and destruction through increased militarization of the border.”
Other advocates are considering the same path as they increasingly shift their criticism to the Democrats. In closed-door meetings, many have accused Democrats of giving up on a balanced compromise over immigration reform just to move the bill forward.
“Is this the way they’re going to, quote-unquote, resolve immigration issues?” said Fernando Garcia, executive director for the Border Network for Human Rights, based in El Paso, Tex.
The group is one of several that signed a letter to the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” senators who drafted the bill, denouncing the border-security proposal, an amendment by two Republican senators, Bob Corker of Tennessee and John Hoeven of North Dakota, that they said made no mention of the families it is bound to keep apart.
“This amendment makes border communities a sacrificial lamb, in exchange for the road to citizenship,” said Christian Ramirez, director of the Southern Border Communities Coalition, based in San Diego.
....
Its provisions, the toughest in the history of border-enforcement buildup, got Mexico to break its silence on Tuesday, when Foreign Minister José Antonio Meade told reporters: “Fences do not unite us. They are not the solution to the migratory phenomenon and are not consistent with a secure and modern border.”
The House seems unlikely to pass a bill this summer, and I'm not sure if they even would this year. Any bill would likely have to pass on the strength of Democratic votes, and groups like Presente.org need to keep putting pressure on Democrats from the left so that, for once, they'll show a bit of backbone at the negotiating table.