AFA of PA ACTION ALERT

June 24, 2013

Issue

Corker/Hoeven Amendment to Immigration Bill is a Disaster

Details

Senators Bob Corker (R-TN) and John Hoeven (R-ND) worked out a border security amendment to the Gang of Eight immigration bill in the hopes of gaining more Republican support for the overall bill. They worked closely with New York Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer.  The amendment is 1,190 pages long!!  This was introduced on Friday and will be voted on later this afternoon.  How many Senators will have even read it by that time?

Here are some problems with their amendment (thanks to Eagle Forum):

1.) The amnesty first framework will remain in place.  Within six months, all the Secretary of Homeland Security will have to do is submit a fencing and border security strategy and then she can grant amnesty to illegal aliens.

2.)  The Schumer-Corker-Hoeven amendment allows illegal  aliens to be eligible for green cards.

3.)  The Schumer-Corker-Hoeven amendment includes Carper amendment 1273, which establishes pilot program to notify nonimmigrants that their visas are about to expire, but it only lasts one year and then the Secretary issues a report and nothing else is required.

4.)  The Schumer-Corker-Hoeven amendment incorporates Carper amendments 1274, 1331, 1408, which authorize the use of funds from the trust fund to “produce an educational campaign and disseminate information about the perils of the journey across Mexico, the likelihood of apprehension, and the difficulty of finding employment in the United States” for people in Central America; and to train border/law enforcement officials in Mexico and Central America.

5.) No guaranteed border security changes in the amendment — The long, detailed list of technologies to be  deployed at each Border Patrol sector sounds great and will be implemented UNLESS the Secretary of Homeland Security wants to change them or simply doesn’t want to do it.

6.)  By 2021 no fewer than 38,405 Border Patrol agents are “deployed, stationed and maintained”  along Southern border –  an increase of 19,200 agents.  According to the National Association of Border Patrol Agents this is an unrealistic goal.  Proper background checks, screening and instruction for that many would take over 20 years.   The amendment sets aside $30 billion for this task; however, they obtain that cash by raiding the Social Security Trust Fund.

You get the idea – this is a VERY BAD amendment.  It weakens our current immigration laws and makes our southern AND northern borders less secure.

Click here for more information from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

Action Steps

Go to our ACTION CENTER and contact Senators Bob Casey, Jr. and Pat Toomey and ask them to oppose the Corker/Hoeven 1,190 page amendment to the Gang of Eight immigration bill.  The vote on the amendment may come as early as this afternoon.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email