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2006.06.14 "No Illegal Left Behind" Roundup
See previous: 2006.06.13 "No Illegal Left Behind" Roundup
Today's must-reads:
Bush: How about $4.4 billion for border?
By Jon Ward and Stephen Dinan
President Bush this morning proposed spending $4.4 billion on border security as the first step in a comprehensive immigration reform bill, in the White House's latest effort to resurrect the bill that failed last week.
"We're going to show the American people that the promises in this bill will be kept," Mr. Bush said, in a speech to a meeting of the Associated Builders and Contractors.
Mr. Bush said he understands that "Americans are skeptical about immigration reform," saying that an attempt at immigration reform in 1986 "failed."
The White House has acknowledged this week that the bill, which stalled last week and was pulled off the Senate floor, failed in part because there is massive grass-roots skepticism about the government's sincerity and ability to secure the border.
"The American people want a demonstration that we can actually do it," said White House spokesman Tony Snow. ...
As I said when I first got wind of this idea a couple of days ago: The main problem with the latest idea is that no matter how much money Congress allocates for a border fence and other enforcement enhancements it still falls to the Executive branch to actually spend it.
Michelle Malkin calls it The $4.4 billion grand ruse. See also: Kill the Bill: Amnesty waffles, anyone?
Below the fold:
- Majority Leader Reid Close to Reviving Senate Immigration Bill
- Groups unite against 'amnesty'
- Senators Work to Revive Immigration Bill
See also:
Majority Leader Reid Close to Reviving Senate Immigration Bill
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will approve a new deal on immigration on Thursday and move to bring the once-dead legislation back to the Senate floor next week, Democratic sources told FOX News.
Details of the immigration compromise remain to be finalized, but top Democratic sources say Reid has closely monitored the behind-the-scenes dickering over policy changes and a finite list of amendments due for consideration. Based on the latest updates on the policy and amendments, Reid will approve the compromise and move late Thursday to put the bill back on the calendar for Senate consideration in the middle of next week.
"He's going to bless it and he's going to get the Senate back in the business of dealing with immigration," said a source in the Democratic Senate leadership.
The principal change to the bipartisan immigration compromise that Reid shelved last week is the addition of $4.4 billion in added border security spending. That money will be added to the base bill to return to the floor. Any other changes to the immigration bill will have to be made through the amendment process. ...
Michelle Malkin comments here.
Groups unite against 'amnesty'
By Ralph Z. Hallow
The debate over President Bush's immigration bill and opposition to it as an "amnesty" proposal have invigorated otherwise dispirited conservative interest groups and forged an anti-Bush unity on the right not seen since the Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers.
Hopeful signs have materialized for conservative leaders who have opposed the drive by the president, top Senate Republicans and leading Democrats to give legal status to illegal aliens while giving what critics deride as lip service to border security. ...
Senators Work to Revive Immigration Bill
WASHINGTON (AP) - Key Republican and Democratic senators are reaching for a deal to resurrect their stalled immigration compromise by requiring that some $4 billion be spent on border security and workplace enforcement.
The mandatory security funding is part of a plan to attract more Republican support for the measure, which grants legal status to millions of unlawful immigrants.
In private meetings Wednesday, the bipartisan group that crafted the delicate compromise was hammering out a plan to allow votes on a limited set of Republican- and Democratic-sought changes in exchange for a commitment from GOP holdouts that they will back moving ahead with the bill.
Republican architects of the measure, which grants legal status to millions of unlawful immigrants, expressed confidence that such an agreement was possible as early as Thursday. ...
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