Amnesty Push Begins Today

Today, the leaders of both parties in the Senate are taking the first legislative step to provide instand amnesty to 11 million illegal aliens. At 2:15 PM this afternoon, the Senate will vote to bring up S. 744, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act (aka the “Amnesty Bill”).

There will be more votes, but few will be more important. If senators really oppose this misguided immigration bill, they must deny amnesty supporters the 60 votes needed to begin debate and kill this bill before it sees the light of day.

Senators will surely peddle a story about how it’s “important to have a debate” on this bill, and that their vote today doesn’t necessarily mean they will support final passage of the bill, but this is deceptive. They know that the best chance of defeating this bill is when 60 votes are required and at the beginning of the process before other senators have been bought off with one meaningless amendment or another. If the consideration of the Amnesty Bill in the Senate Judiciary Committee the last few weeks showed anything, it’s that no major substantive changes will be tolerated.

Can any senator say with a straight face that they reasonably expect the Senate to adopt a real border security plan?  … That this legislation truly cut off welfare benefits for immigrants? … or  … That it will prevent millions of illegal immigrants from gaining instant legalization and a pathway to citizenship? The answer to these questions is “No” because they know Chuck Schumer’s Republicans will be working the floor just like they worked the committee to block those amendments.

Once the Senate begins this debate, the deal is all but done. The best way to prevent Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer from cobbling together enough votes to prevent this bill from passing is to stop it now.

A vote to bring this bill up for debate today is a vote for amnesty. Any senator who supports it today will be responsible for it passing tomorrow. Now is the time to take a stand.