NumbersUSA Action Alerts
From: Roy Beck, President, NumbersUSA
Date: Wednesday 24oct07 3 p.m. EDT
DREAM Act amnesty in Senate falls 8 votes short — This may have been Pro-Illegals’ best shot
CONGRATULATIONS!
As we posted on our Home page immediately after the vote, the Senate early this afternoon voted 52-44 in favor of “cloture” on the DREAM Act amnesty. That was 8 votes short of the 60 necessary to allow the bill to even be brought to the floor.
SEE VOTE TALLY AT BOTTOM OF THIS EMAIL.
WHO SWITCHED TO AMNESTY? WHO SWITCHED AGAINST?
For the third time this year, an amnesty failed in the Senate. (Until this year, the Senate was widely considered a lost cause for those of us interested in reducing overall illegal and legal immigration.)
I have said for years that if this concept of an amnesty primarily for teenage illegal aliens ever got to the floor of the House or Senate that it would be the most difficult to defeat. It involves the most compelling emotional stories that the open-borders people have. It is not easy to help Senators understand that they must show compassion for all the American people, too, and consider all the ramification of passing a stand-alone amnesty.
But you did it!
THANKS TO ALL OF YOU WHO FAXED AND ESPECIALLY WHO PHONED
To all of you who made that first phone call to a Senate office this week, isn’t it amazing how easy that was and what a big difference it made? The accumulation of thousands of first-time phone calls was magnificent.
And to you who phoned and phoned and phoned every day this week, you are marathon super citizens!
We had less than 72 hours to mobilize an army of opposition to the S. 2205 DREAM Act amnesty. The other side, of course, was tipped off ahead of time and got a big head start on us on Monday. But by Tuesday noon, it appears that your phone calls were swamping theirs.
And the other side didn’t come close t o you on faxing, I’m confident.
You sent more than 185,000 faxes into the Senate from the time I first alerted you shortly after midnight on Monday morning to the time of the vote today!
Because you had already signed up for duty and already knew the issues, you were able to respond so quickly to my requests for action. You counteracted the effort by Senate Majority Leader Reid to avoid all the Senate rules and rush this to a vote before the country could even know what was happening.
WHAT TODAY’S VICTORY MEANS FOR THE FUTURE
This really IS a giant victory.
The other side recognizes it. Yesterday, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) seemed to say that all the other amnesties and rewards for illegal aliens that Democratic leaders had lined up for the next several months were dependent upon passing this DREAM Act amnesty.
According to The Hill, a political junkies’ publication on Capitol Hill, Sen. Menendez said: “I think the Dream Act is a litmus test. If we can’t do this for children … then I doubt we can do anything else.”
Of course, the DREAM amnesty was NOT just about children, since it included illegal aliens through the age of 29!
Still, the pro-amnesty side had the image of children as their primary arguing point. Demonstrating where they felt their greatest strength lay, the amnesty’s chief sponsor, the Senate’s Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), used huge blow-ups of cute teenage illegal aliens on the Senate floor in making his appeal today.
But in the end, the American people’s education of Senate offices this week — and their constant pressure for most of this year — seemed to have gotten through to a lot of Senators who understood that you can’t make broad public policy on emotional photos and stories alone.
SEN. DURBIN’S TEST
Sen. Durbin was quoted in The Hill yesterday : “We’re going to try to make this very focused. I don’t want to reopen the comprehensive immigration bill debate in all of its different areas that could come up. Really I just want to test this issue.”
And the test failed.
Most of the advocacy groups for illegal aliens made it clear in their emails to their members that this wasn’t just about teenager illegal aliens but about a first step that, if passed, would lead to voting on a whole range of other amnesties and rewards for illegal aliens.
Sen. Durbin brought to the floor what seemed to him to be the best case amnesty scenario he had to offer. And it didn’t fly.
THE END OF AMNESTY ATTEMPTS THIS YEAR?
Optimistically, we can hope that Democratic leadership will decide that it just isn’t worth wasting more of the calendar and more divisiveness by bringing up any other amnesties this year — and maybe not even next year.
We’ll soon see because the open borders pushers are clamoring for a vote on the AgJOBS Amnesty when the Farm spending bill comes up probably next week.
We are hearing that some of the Democratic mid-level leaders are balking at adding the AgJOBS Amnesty to the Farm bill in committee. The question now is whether Reid will try to talk the amnesty zealots out of trying to attach it on the Senate floor, after their failure today.
I’ve been looking over the Yeas and Nays on today’s vote and trying to imagine how enough of them could switch to get 60 votes for an AgJOBS amnesty. It seems to me that some of today’s good NO votes could switch to YES. But I can see at least a couple of today’s YES votes switching to NO on AgJOBS. Seems like a close call, but I also have difficulty seeing how the larger AgJOBS amnesty would be more popular than the DREAM Act amnesty with the poster kids. I hope Sen. Reid’s math is working out the same and he will just save us from having another amnesty crisis next we ek.
SEN. HUTCHISON (R-TEXAS) MAY CAUSE DREAM AMNESTY TO COME BACK UP?
Perhaps the darkest cloud on the horizon is that Sen. Hutchison and Sen. Durbin have already announced their intent to create a new DREAM amnesty as a substitute that might garner the extra votes for passage.
Hutchison’s key concept seems to be that the illegal aliens would get the right to live here permanently, to work and to get in-state tuition but would never be allowed to become U.S citizens.
We’ll see.
WHO SWITCHED SIDES FROM THE JUNE AMNESTY VOTE?
The final cloture vote for the Comprehensive Amnesty in June was 46-53. The amnesty side fell 14 votes short.
Today, it was only 8 votes short.
Here is what was different today:
—————
TO THE BAD SIDE
8 Democrats switched to pro-amnesty after voting AGAINST the amnesty in June.
Bayh (D-Ind).
Bingaman (D-N.M.)
Brown (D-Ohio)
Harkin (D-Iowa)
Nelson (D-Neb.)
Rockefeller (D-W.Va.)
Stabenow (D-Mich.)
Webb (D-Va.)They need your faxes of chastisement in hopes that they may return to the anti-illegal fold on the next votes. However, they are establishing a bad pattern. All of them voted last week in favor of sanctuary cities being able to refuse to cooperate in identifying illegal aliens within their boundaries. Any good will from their NO vote on the June amnety is fading fast.
—————-
TO THE GOOD SIDE
1 Democrat switched to our side against the amnesty after voting FOR the June amnesty.
Conrad (D-N.D.)This is an extremely welcome development. His fellow North Dakota Democratic Senator, Dorgan, has been one of our finest allies in pro tecting American workers from unfair foreign labor. But Sen. Conrad usually votes on the other side. He is not up for re-election next year. On the face of it, this switch would seem to be more about generally realligning with where the people of North Dakota are.
—————–
TO THE BAD SIDE
1 Democrat who didn’t vote in June voted FOR this amnesty.
Johnson (D-S.D.)
—————–
TO THE BAD SIDE
1 Independent switched to pro-amnesty after voting AGAINST the June amnesty.
Sanders (I-Vt.)
——————
TO THE BAD SIDE
5 Republicans switched to pro-amnesty after voting AGAINST the June Amnesty.
Brownback (R-Kan.)
Coleman (R-Minn.)
Collins (R-Maine)
Hatch (R-Utah)
Hutchison (R-Texas)
Brownback began to vote somewhat better on immigration once he entered the Presidential campaign and started talking to voters especially in Iowa. But he dropped out of the race last week. So, it appears he will go back to his championship for illegal immigration and foreign workers that he demonstrated before he started looking for votes nationally.
They all need your faxes of chastisement in hopes that they may return to the anti-illegal fold on the next votes.
——————-
TO THE GOOD SIDE
4 Republicans switched to our side against the amnesty after voting FOR the June amnesty.
Graham (R-S.C.)
Gregg(R-N.H.)
Kyl (R-Ariz.)
Specter (R-Pa.)
Those of you in those four states really hammered these Senators for their pro-amnesty votes in June. I think all four of them are wanting to have at least a somewhat different profile on immigration. This is the beinning of what may be a long path of rehabilitation. Let’s hope so.
——————-
HELPED US BY NOT VOTING
On a cloture vote requiring 60 votes, not showing up to vote has the same effect as voting NO. So we appreciated the fact that the following did not vote today. All four voted FOR the June amnesty.
Boxer (D-CA)
Dodd (D-Conn.)
Kennedy (D-Mass.)
McCain (R-Ariz.)
TOTAL VOTE TALLY ON CLOTURE ON S. 2205, THE DREAM ACT AMNESTY
==========
YEAs —52 (a vote for amnesty by letting it come to floor for consideration)
==========
Akaka (D-HI)
Bayh (D-IN)
Bennett (R-UT)
Biden (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Brown (D-OH)
Brownback (R-KS)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Clinton (D-NY)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Craig (R-ID)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Hagel (R-NE)
Harkin (D-IA)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kerry (D-MA)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Kohl (D-WI)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Lott (R-MS)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Obama (D-IL)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Snowe (R-ME)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Webb (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)
===========
NAYs —44 (a vote against amnesty by keeping bill from consideration)
===========
Alexander (R-TN)
Allard (R-CO)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bond (R-MO)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Byrd (D-WV)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Conrad (D-ND)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Dole (R-NC)
Domenici (R-NM)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Landrieu (D-LA)
McCaskill (D-MO)
McConnell (R-KY)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Pryor (D-AR)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Smith (R-OR)
Specter (R-PA)
Stevens (R-AK)
Sununu (R-NH)
Tester (D-MT)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (R-VA)
===============
Not Voting - 4
===============
Boxer (D-CA)
Dodd (D-CT)
Kennedy (D-MA)
McCain (R-AZ)
What a week!
Thanks again to all of you who did so much. If none of you had responded, I can guarantee you that we would have lost today.
We face many negative proposals in addition to amnesties this fall. We also have some exciting opportunities emerging for making things better.
LET’S TALK ABOUT ALL THAT ON ANOTHER DAY.
THIS EVENING, CELEBRATE!
P.S. We can triple our membership quickly if our members email their friends about us and they in turn email theirs.
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The Senate failed to obtain cloture on the DREAM Act amnesty (S. 2205) on October 24 by a 52-44 vote, for which 60 YES votes were needed to prevent a filibuster. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) were attempting to bring this nightmarish amnesty bill to the floor under Senate Rule XIV without it ever having been debated in committee.
