Senate Reaches Immigration Deal
by Pamela LeaveyThe Senate has agreed on an immigration reform deal this afternoon “that would bring illegal immigrants and their families “out of the shadows and into the sunshine of American life,” as Senator Edward M. Kennedy put it.”
The bill would provide an opportunity “right away” for millions of illegal aliens to correct their status, said Mr. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts. It would emphasize family ties as well as employment skills in weighing how soon immigrants could become legal residents, he said.
But it would also emphasize improved border security and would call for “very strong sanctions” against employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants, according to Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania.
Both senators acknowledged that the proposed bill, which was immediately praised by President Bush, is likely to come under fire both from the political right and the political left — decried either as “amnesty” or as “not humanitarian enough,” as Mr. Specter said.
The bill still needs to pass in the House where it still may face a hurdle. Kennedy, the N.Y. Times reports said that the immigration reform bill, “however imperfect, was the best chance in years to secure America’s borders, help millions of people who have been living in fear and help to eliminate a sad and sordid “underground economy” in American life.”
“Now it’s time for action,” Mr. Kennedy said. “I’ve been around here long enough to know that opportunities like this don’t come very often.” (The senator has been in office 45 years.)
The right wing nuts are up in arms over this one, with Michelle Malkin leading the clarion call.
Here’s a flash back to the past via Jeralyn at Talk Left:
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When did they vote, and who came down where?
Also, why is there no veto threat? That’s scary!
Permanent Underclass
Severe poverty is worst near the Mexican border and in some areas of the South, where 6.5 million severely poor residents are struggling to find work as manufacturing jobs in the textile, apparel and furniture-making industries disappear. The Midwestern Rust Belt and areas of the Northeast also have been hard hit as economic restructuring and foreign competition have forced numerous plant closings.
At the same time, low-skilled immigrants with impoverished family members are increasingly drawn to the South and Midwest to work in the meatpacking, food processing and agricultural industries.
These and other factors such as increased fluctuations in family incomes and illegal immigration have helped push 43 percent of the nation’s 37 million poor people into deep poverty – the highest rate in at least 32 years.
“What appears to be taking place is that, over the long term, you have a significant permanent underclass that is not being impacted by anti-poverty policies,” said Michael Tanner, the director of Health and Welfare Studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.
How is this new bill going to address the permanent underclass we are creating? Regardless of what side of the immigration issue you are on, it seems painfully clear that our current policies are only fostering more poor. It is no surprise that the largest numbers of severely poor people live in the states bordering Mexico. The immigration issue effects both sides, because of low wages being paid Americans are working and yet cannot escape the ranks of the working poor and because most immigrants are low-skilled and poorly paid they also swell the ranks of the working poor. I don’t see anything in this bill to address this.
The Disputed Truth