Republican Attack on Children Continues

The senate rejected a bill that would give children of undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship under strict guidelines. They would have to have lived in the U.S. for five years, been under the age of 16, and served in the military or went to two years of college. It would then allow them to get visas and legally pay taxes. In California, employers--and farmers in particular--lacking a sufficient work force were big backers of this bill. Different groups have estimated that it would have provided from 100,000 to 500,000 visas to undocumented workers. Remember, these would be educated, English-speaking individuals who had been brought to the U.S. as children and who would then be able to pay taxes with no fear of being exposed as undocumented. Why would anyone on earth oppose this? Did these children have anything to do with their own fate when they were brought to the U.S.? Then why should they, as educated/military personnel be forced to suffer as a result?

LA Times:

Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), who supported the measure, said that "to turn on these children and treat them as criminals is an indication of the level of emotion and, in some cases, bigotry and hatred that is involved in this debate."

Unfortunately, again it was largely Republicans who killed the measure. It passed with a 52-44 vote, but was still short of the 60 needed to override a filibuster. It was actually even closer than that as four Democrats who were not in the Senate said that had the vote been closer they would have appeared and voted in favor of the bill. A handful of Republicans supported and a handful of Democrats opposed it; it was otherwise voted on along party lines.