[Update added below the Amnesty bill]
Embedded below the post will be the 844 page Amnesty bill offered up by the Senate's so-called "Gang of 8," which contrary to claims made before it's release, offers amnesty without any real triggers on border security.
NBC Latino explains , “Despite the insistence of tying a path to citizenship to border security, the bill does not use triggers, but instead establishes border security ‘goals.’
Conn Carroll goes into more detail:
First, 180 days after the bill passes, the secretary of homeland security must submit two strategies to Congress before any “immigrant in undocumented status” can be granted “registered provision immigrant” legal status. One strategy must be titled “Comprehensive Southern Border Security Strategy” and must outline how DHS plans to spend $3 billion securing the southern border. Another strategy must be titled “Southern Border Fencing Strategy” and must outline how DHS plans to spend $1.5 billion building more fencing on the southern border.
Second, five years after the bill passes, the secretary of homeland security must submit a “written certification” to the President and Congress that the bill’s “Goal for Border Security” has been met. In order to meet the bill’s security goal, DHS must certify that 90 percent of all people attempting to enter into the country illegally in “High Risk Border Sectors” are apprehended. If DHS fails to claim that the border has been secured, then the President, and the majority and minority leaders in the House and Senate must form a “Border Commission” which must issue a “Report and Recommendation” with in 180 days on how to spend another $2 billion securing the border. If the Border Commission fails to issue a report,the DHS gets the $2 billion anyway.
To recap, in order to get immediate legal status, the only trigger the Obama administration would have to meet is the submission of two strategies to Congress. That’s it. Just a plan for border security. And then, in order for those with legal status to become citizens, DHS must claim that the border is secure. That’s it. There is no way for Congress or a private citizen to challenge a DHS claim that the border is secure. And even if DHS did admit the border was not secure, all that happens is the creation of a Border Commission whose only power is to issue a report on how DHS should spend another $2 billion. No actual border security, our border fence, must be achieved.
Carroll also reminds readers of previous Marco Rubio statement: “If, in fact, this bill does not have real triggers in there, if there is not language in this bill that guarantees that nothing else will happen unless these enforcement mechanisms are in place, I won’t support it.” – Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., on The Rush Limbaugh Show, Jan. 29
Carroll and Greg Sargent, via Twitter: (H/T Twitchy)
@theplumlinegs Rubio got played. He looks like a total fool.
— Conn Carroll (@conncarroll) April 17, 2013
Marco Rubio just went from golden boy to sucker.
844-page Amnesty Bill embedded below:
Senate Amnesty Bill 2013 uploaded by Susan Duclos
[Update] Senator Jeff Sessions statement, via Hot Air:
“Already, we know that the bill’s sponsors have abandoned their core promise to the American people that enforcement would come first. This bill is legalization first, not enforcement first. The day the bill passes there will be effective amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants, with only the same promises we have heard before of enforcement to occur at some later date. That amnesty will then become official in a matter of months—once DHS merely submits a plan for border security in the future. That’s not a trigger—that’s the honor system. DHS develops the metrics and DHS decides when those metrics are met. Why should we trust DHS to follow through—after amnesty is granted—when this administration has aggressively defied those laws already in place?
In recent years interior enforcement has been significantly undermined. And yet our interior enforcement needs are almost totally neglected in the Gang’s proposal.Alarmingly, the bill leaves intact the single greatest obstacle to immigration reform: the Administration’s abuse of prosecutorial discretion to prevent the enforcement of federal law. It will also provide safe harbor to those who have committed a variety of offenses—ranging from identity theft, to multiple immigration violations, and even those with criminal records.This bill opens up citizenship to recent arrivals and, remarkably, millions who overstayed their visas. If adopted, this bill would send a message to the world that if you can beat the system, you will be rewarded with citizenship. If adopted, this bill would send the following message to the world: if you get a U.S. visa and it expires, never leave—just stay put and evade detection. It even opens up citizenship to those who have been deported from the country.”