U.S. Senate Proceedings Update

The CIR bill (S. 2611) now has about 105 amendments, most of which are waiting in the queue to be introduced. The main sponsors of the bill Senator Specter and Senator Kennedy will decide when and in what order these amendments will be introduced. Somewhere buried in those amendments are the Brownback amendment (SA 4058) and the Cornyn amendment (SA 4005) both of which contain useful legislation for aspiring legal immigrants.

To give you a picture of the kind of amendments that are being introduced, here are a few that have already been introduced. Once introduced they are voted on, usually by voice vote or a Yea-Nay vote. Needless to say some of these pass and some don't.

1. Kyl Amendment that prohibits Criminals from getting Amnesty was passed 99-0
2. Sessions amendment that asks for building a 370 mile fence between USA and Mexico was passed 83-16
3. Vitter's amendment that would have removed the guest worker program and the legalization of the undocumented workers was defeated 33-16
4. Sen Cornyn introduced an amendment that asks for the Guest Worker program to be Employer Based similar to the H1-B program instead of allowing the immgrant to self petition. This amendments squeaked through narrowly 50-48
5. Sen Kennedy introduced an amendment that changes Cornyn's amendment. This amendment makes a H2-C immigrant to self petition if they have been in the country for 4 years, have a labor certification and their employer is able to attest to a future job. This amendment passed 56-43

(Source: ImmigrationVoice.org)

The list goes on...we can only hope that pro-legal immigrant amendments atleast get a chance to be voted on. Most Senators don't have any opposition to these provisions, just that there isn't enough political pressure or will power to introduce them onto the floor. That's where lobbying comes into play and that's what ImmigrationVoice.org is doing. Remember that this is a volunteer organisation made up of members like me whose cases are pending in the system. Please join the group and donate if you believe in what they're doing.