The Senators are coming, the Senators are coming! That’s right, the Senate is debating the DHS Appropriations bill right now, and immigration amendments are being offered. I blogged about the Sessions E-Verify proposal yesterday. Well bill, that passed by voice vote this morning, but not before the Senate voted down a proposal from Senator Schumer to table the Sessions proposal. Senator Leahy, in an astute move prior to the vote on Sessions’ E-Verify bill, amended that bill to include a permanent extension of the EB-5 Regional Pilot Program. So, Leahy’s amendment permanently extending the EB-5 Regional Pilot Program was approved too!
Senator DeMint from South Carolina threw in a bill to mandate the construction of actual fences along 700 miles of the Southern Border, taking away the right of DHS/CBP to decide how best to protect that border. That has also passed.
Senator Hatch has now introduced a bill which includes positive changes including undoing the Widow Penalty, and a religious worker extension and a rural doctors program extension. You can still call the Senate Switchboard to voice your support for this latter bill, and your disgust with the Senate passage of laws without debate that will affect millions of lives and cost billions of dollars. You can reach your Senator by calling 202-224-3121.
All of these amendments, of course, must now go back to a conference committee with the House, and there is no guarantee that any of them will become law. But, lest you thought your time to relax from calling your Congressman was over, it has now started again. Get on the phone and start demanding REAL Immigration Reform, rather than this piecemeal junk.