Some analysis of Harry Reid's hand-picked amendments for the shamnesty bill reveal exactly what was expected - blatant departures from the promises made by the 'deal-makers' to have a fair and equitable bill.
Ed Morrissey at Captain's Quarters raises the following questions:
Background checks. One 'compromise' was that the 24-hour background check constraint was supposed to be lifted. It's back in now.
The amazing permanent 'temporary' visa. The Z-visa can be renewed an unlimited number of times.
Non-working status. Z-visa non-immigrants older than 65 can stay even if they're not working. If they're not working, why are they here?
Inconsistent line-jumping. Z-visa immigrants can't file for residency until 30 days after eligibility for those who legally applied before May 1, 2005. This means they can't 'cut in line' in front of people who are already in line...unless they've only been in line for the past two years.
Law enforcement...good? Previously, only law-enforcement activity relating to immigration and national security would be shared from Z-visa applications; now it's any law enforcement. This might actually be a good thing, if it holds. Small consolation, though, given the rest of the bilge included.
Payment plans. 80% of all penalties paid by Z-visa applicants will be done through installment plans. This is understandable, but it also means the government will have to manage a system to track all of that. See all previous mentions of incompetency in the US government for how well that should work out.
Guest workers aplenty. Initially, the guest worker count allowed by this bill was 400,000, but was then whittled down to 200,000. Now, apparently, it will be 1.5 million!
Overall confusion. There are several examples of cross purposes in this bill, which will lend general confusion to both supporters and opponents of the bill. One example I can think of is that there are measures that require security triggers first while at the same time using time passing to dictate when Z-visas are given out (without regard to triggers).
As you can see, only a few hours have passed, and there are already major signs of back-tracking on the amendments that Reid promised. In addition, there's still the fact that if the bill passes out of the Senate, the committee to reconcile the bill with the House has already promised to remove any offending amendments.
It's getting uglier by the hour. As promised.
There's my two cents.
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