Senate To Vote Tuesday On Defense Bill

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has scheduled a vote on a defense authorization bill for Tuesday that includes, among other things, a provision to repeal the military’s ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy as well as a measure to put hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants on a pathway to citizenship.

Reid is likely aware that getting the 60 votes needed to pass either measure could be difficult, but understands the positive impact that attaching the two side-bills to the legislation may have for his party. The Nevada Democrat, who isn’t taking for granted his chances of being reelected this fall, hopes the efforts to pass immigration reform don’t go unacknowledged at the polls by the state’s voters, nearly 25% of whom are Hispanic.

Democrats, including Vice President Joe Biden, believe they are close to having the votes necessary to overcome a Republican filibuster on DADT. However, some Republicans have made it clear that they’ll vote ‘no’ if the controversial item is attached. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), an enthusiastic supporter of the military, told the Washington Times earlier this week that he believes Reid is using the defense bill to advance the ““social agenda of the liberal left.”

The DREAM Act has even less support from Republicans despite the fact that it was co-authored in 2001 by one of their own, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). The legislation, which aims to put illegal immigrants between the ages of 16-35 on a path toward citizenship, has 39 co-sponsors, all Democrats, and is supported by President Obama.

During a meeting with Hispanic lawmakers at the White House this week, Obama reportedly said he would ask the Senate to hold an up-or-down vote on the measure. According to Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), the president told the lawmakers he would “leave no stone unturned.”

Virginia Lawmaker To Introduce Arizona-Esque Immigration Bill

A new battle over the right of states to enforce federal immigration law may soon spring up in Congress’ backyard.

Using Arizona’s controversial immigration law as a model, Prince William County (Va.) Board Chairman Corey Stewart has crafted a proposal to crack down on those who are in the state illegally. Stewart’s bill would allow state and local police to check the immigration status during any lawful stop, detention, or arrest of any person suspected to be an illegal alien. The bill would also place restrictions on hiring illegals, and would ban all policies and ordinances that grant sanctuary status to illegals. Additionally, like Arizona’s SB 1070, the bill contains language that completely forbids law enforcement officials from using racial profiling as a means of targeting suspected illegals.

Yet Stewart’s camp says that unlike the Arizona law, key parts of which were enjoined earlier this week by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton, their bill would hold up in court.

In her ruling, Bolton said that “requiring police to check the immigration status of those they arrest or whom they stop and suspect are in the country illegally would overwhelm the federal government’s ability to respond, and could mean legal immigrants are wrongly arrested.”

“Judge Bolton enjoined the sections of SB 1070, which created the mirror state code violation for alien registration or traveling without legal documentation, but none of the sections which simply directed [law enforcement officials] to enforce federal law,” an aide to Stewart told me.
 
“Section 3 [of Stewart’s bill] as a whole mirrors the section of SB 1070 which was upheld, not enjoined, and therefore Corey’s version of the model Virginia law puts the direction to enforce federal immigration law in the same section,” he added.

Stewart’s latest foray into immigration policy is certainly not his first. In 2007, Stewart, the highest elected official in Prince William County, a suburb of Washington, D.C. located just 25 miles south of the city, campaigned for and passed a county-wide resolution that allowed local law enforcement officials to check the immigration status of anyone they arrested. The initiative also enrolled the county in the federal government’s 287g program.  Last year, it was reported that violent crime in the county had dropped almost 37%, a statistic Stewart credited in part to the enactment of his policy.

Stewart will push state lawmakers to consider his bill, the Virginia Rule of Law Act, when they convene for a new legislative session in January 2011.

Brookings Scholar Predicts Arizona Lawsuit Will Fail

Philip Bunnell - Talk Radio News Service

Darrel West, the Director of Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, predicted Wednesday that the lawsuit filed recently by the Justice Department against Arizona will likely fail.

“The Justice Department claims that states can’t make immigration policy when in fact states have been passing immigration laws for decades,” West said during an afternoon Webchat. “I don’t think the courts will buy the idea that only the federal government can make immigration policy.”

Explained West, “In the 19th century, Southern states limited migration to their states based on race and property. California tried to exclude the Chinese in the late 19th century. And governors today sign all sorts of immigration laws.” 

The Department’s lawsuit, filed Tuesday, was a reaction to Arizona’s new hard-line immigration policy, which allows law enforcement officials to request proof of citizenship from those suspected to be in the country illegally. Critics have charged that the law will ultimately lead to racial profiling and threaten public safety by allowing the public’s trust in police to erode.

The lawsuit is based on the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause, which dictates that legislation passed at a state level cannot trump federal law.

Although West stated that he does not believe the lawsuit will be effective, he noted that the law was far from ideal.

“The new Arizona law creates more problems that it solves,” West said.

Illegal Alien Debate Affecting American Perception Of Legal Immigration

Americans are growing increasingly weary of immigrants, with 54% of the population viewing legal immigration as a problem rather than an opportunity says a recent survey. The Transatlantic Trends survey conducted by the German Marshall Fund of the United States and presented to Canadian and American Immigration Department officials in New York yesterday evening, also revealed that 48% of Americans believe there are too many immigrants in the country.

Public opinion on immigration is often drawn along the lines of political affiliation, a fact that is even more obvious this year with 73% of Republicans seeing immigration as a problem, up 15% from last year. The percentage of Democrats who view legal immigration in the same light also grew from 45% to 48%. Immigration policy is gearing up to be a hot button issue in the coming election, with over two thirds of Americans saying it would influence their choice of a political candidate.

But the study also denotes an important disconnect between public perception of immigration and reality. For instance, when asked to estimate what percentage of US population was foreign born, respondents said 35 %, when in reality the number is around 14%.

"The gap is huge. This leads us to believe that education is very important here, that we don't know alot about our immigrants" says Zsolt Nyiri, Director of Transatlantic Trends, "There is alot of talk about how immigrants should learn more about their host society, and that is true, but perhaps this could be a two a way street, and that the general public can benefit from learning about the immigrants among them."

"I think the elephant in the room is the Comprehensive Immigration Reform issue and that probably has a big impact on what we are seeing in terms of public perception" says Rebecca Carson, head of the Office of Citizenship, a branch of US Citizenship and Immigration Services. ""The fact that we have not dealt with this issue as a country and the distinction between legal immigration and illegal immigration really muddies the water."

Senators McCain And Kyl Call For 3,000 National Guard Troops Along Southwest Border

By Antonia Aguilar - University of New Mexico / Talk Radio News Service

Arizona Senators John McCain (R) and Jon Kyl (R) called Monday for the immediate deployment of 3,000 National Guard troops to help secure the U.S. border along Arizona and Mexico.

“Arizona has been disproportionately hit by this situation,” said McCain during a press briefing on ways to counteract violence stemming from illegal immigration. “Last year there were 1 million apprehensions of border crossing. 600,000 of those took place in the state of Arizona.... We’re not talking just about people who are crossing our border to go to work, we’re talking about criminal elements that are increasingly sophisticated in their operations.”

The deployment of 3,000 troops is one of ten strategies within McCain and Kyl’s proposed Ten Point Border Security Action Plan to secure the Arizona/ Mexico border. The plan also includes permanently adding 3,000 Custom and Border Protection Agents and constructing 700 miles of fencing along the border.

“It doesn’t take that much in the way of resources to accomplish what we are trying to accomplish,” said Kyl. “This is doable. It can be done and it’s got to be done.”