There is an insider saying within legislative bodies that the easiest way to kill a bill is to “love it to death.” What that means is that if a lawmaker wants to kill a bill but does not want their fingerprints on the murder weapon, they can add amendments to “make the bill better.” However, they select amendments that cause the bill’s supporters to vote against it. Thus they are loving it to death.
Senators Rubio and Cornyn are loving the pathway to citizenship to death
It appears that Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, is loving the pathway to citizenship to death in the immigration reform bill. Rubio was the media star of the Senate Gang of 8 and actively participated in drafting the immigration reform bill. In fact, to accommodate Rubio, many members of the Gang watered down provisions in the bill that pro-immigrant groups would liked to have included.
Now that the bill passed the Judiciary Committee and has been cleared for floor debate, Senator Rubio is working with fellow Republican Texas Senator Cornyn, on an amendment that effectively guts the bill’s main objective—providing a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants who are already here. Rubio’s double agent role is beginning to bother many on the Gang of 8.
Senator John McCain, a supporter of immigration reform, is not fooled by Rubio’s amendment. On the Senate floor Wednesday he blasted the amendment:
“It’s a poison pill,” McCain said of the Cornyn plan. “Hopefully we can have an alternative that satisfies some of the concerns without killing the bill. … It’s not possible for us to support his amendment as it is presently written because it is a poison pill.”
By pushing the Cornyn amendment Rubio can please his Tea Party base who are opposed to immigration reform particularly the pathway to citizenship while taking credit for sponsoring the bill in Florida where 72% favor a pathway for citizenship. Rubio is trying to have it both ways. He is slick, but not stealth.
If the Gang of 8 were a street gang, Rubio would be a marked man.
Amendment shifts ability to earn citizenship from the immigrant to the government
The Cornyn-Rubio amendment leaves the pathway to citizenship in the bill, but both citizenship and a green card for the 11 million immigrants already living in the United States would be possible only when the border is as secure as the Berlin border after the Wall was built in 1961. Unlike Berlin, our border is over 2,000 miles long.
This amendment takes the ability and responsibility to earn a green card and citizenship away from the actual immigrants and gives it to the government-- especially Congress. The Cornyn amendment puts unrealistic border security requirements that must be achieved, and the bar may be so high it could never be achieved. Meanwhile, the 11 million immigrants and DREAMERS would remain in limbo subject to deportation and exploitation.
The Cornyn amendment worked out with Macro Rubio would require an additional $6 billion dollars a year in appropriations on top of what is in the bill already requires. Republicans are not adding to the budget, they have been slashing it. The across the board sequester has cut 10% from border security already. This amendment would incent immigrant haters in Congress to prohibit immigrants from ever becoming citizens just by doing what Republicans do—cut budgets.
Rubio is also working with Republican Senator Orin Hatch on an amendment to prohibit any of the 11 million un-document immigrants who are already here from receiving any federal assistance including healthcare or food stamps for their children while they wait for the government to put a Maginot Line on the border. More love.
The Gang of 7 is trying to write its own amendment to prevent Republicans from jumping ship on the bill. The danger with this game is that the House will water anything that comes out of the Senate even more. So if the Senate bill becomes anemic, anything the House will pass will be a joke.
This is how loving a bill to death works, and it seems to be working on this bill. Will Rubio get away with it?
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