Democrats Defeat Amendment To Require Illegals To Return Home Temporarily

I discussed this last night on my program, and pointed out how foolish the Republicans were who voted to revive debate on this bill. They have been saying that they only voted to debate the bill so they could introduce amendments to make it better, but that doesn't hold water.

Bottom line is ... Republicans aren't powerful enough to accomplish any meaningful change in the immigration bill. That was proven the last time around when Democrats defeated an amendment that would have required illegals that have been involved in criminal activity in this country to be deported. If you couldn't pass that ... you can't pass anything.

Today, I was proven right.

An amendment that would have required illegals to leave the US temporarily, and return via official channels was shot down.

AP:

The Senate on Wednesday killed a Republican proposal to require all adult illegal immigrants to return home temporarily in order to qualify for permanent lawful status in this country.

Also defeated was a Democratic bid to restrict legal status to those who have been in the United States for four years.

The vote was 53-45 to table an amendment by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, to require that illegal immigrants go home within two years in order to qualify for a renewable Z visa to live and work lawfully in the United States.

The bill, which could grant lawful status to as many as 12 million illegal immigrants, requires only heads of household seeking permanent legal residency to return home to apply for green cards.

Senators also voted 79-18 to kill a proposal by Democratic Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., that would have allowed only those who had been in the country for at least four years to gain lawful status. The bill would make anyone here by Jan. 1, 2007 eligible for legalization.

The defeat of Sen. Webb's amendment is proof positive that we were right in telling you that the new illegals will be granted amnesty.