How Patrick Leahy Made Sure The Senate Is Going To Pass Immigration Reform
Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy might as well be the Gang of Eight’s ninth member.
As the Judiciary Committee’s chairman and the Senate’s longest-serving member, Leahy — more than most Democrats — has had to carefully negotiate his deep-rooted progressive principles with his desire to get the comprehensive immigration reform bill out of the Senate.
And as the Senate is on track to pass the Gang’s carefully compromised bill Thursday afternoon, members on both sides of the aisle give a huge chunk of the credit to Leahy for helping usher it through.
It hasn’t been easy for Leahy, who from the get-go hasn’t been shy about voicing his criticism since the Gang of Eight first started meeting to craft the legislation. When he felt the Gang was taking too long to introduce legislation, he told them to hurry up. At the end of the committee’s markup, Leahy tried to introduce an amendment to the bill that would have extended immigration rights to same-sex binational couples only to withdraw it when the majority of the committee said the amendment would ultimately kill the bill. And he begrudgingly agreed to support a “border surge” deal crafted by two Republicans if it meant getting immigration reform passed.
“It is an understatement to say that this is not the amendment I would have drafted. It is a disappointment to me and to many. The modification to my amendment reads like a Christmas wish list for Halliburton,” Leahy said in a statement, announcing he would support the amendment anyway because “legislating is about making tough choices.”
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http://www.buzzfeed.com/katenocera/how-patrick-leahy-made-sure-the-senate-is-going-to-pass-immi
The border surge amendment is awful. Huge gift to corporations.
On Thursday, a bipartisan group of senators unveiled a compromise intended to ensure Senate passage of a major immigration reform bill with enough Republican support to persuade the GOP-controlled House to also take up the measure.
The bipartisan amendment would require 20,000 more border agents, completing 700 miles of fence along the boundary with Mexico, and deploying $3.2 billion in technology upgrades similar to equipment used by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
After the jump, see a list of what specific resources will be deployed in each region along the border. The list was provided to CNN by the office of Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican who helped write the measure.
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http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/06/21/whats-included-in-border-surge-immigration-amendment/
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