Saxby Chambliss Responds…

I received a response from Senator Chambliss today… Let's just say it's less than satisfactory, that's for sure.

Thank you for contacting me to share your thoughts about immigration reform. I appreciate knowing your thoughts on this important and emotional issue.

Our current immigration system is broken and needs reform. Any reform Congress enacts must meet our national security needs and our economic interests; it must also manage the number of people we admit into the U.S. to ensure American workers and families are not negatively impacted by our immigration system.

The recently announced bipartisan agreement on immigration reform is a step in the right direction toward reaching a final and comprehensive immigration bill. This legislation is a significant improvement over last year's bill, which I opposed, but this is not a perfect bill. For me to support any final bill, it must contain the following principles that are important to Georgians:

• Strong border security before any new immigration programs go into effect in order to prevent future illegal immigration
• An employer verification system that can provide employers certainty with respect to the status of potential employees
• A meaningful temporary worker program that is truly temporary and does not provide a pathway to citizenship while allowing employers to fill jobs for which insufficient numbers of American can be found, such as agricultural jobs
• No amnesty

Our nation's immigration problem has been in the making for many years and there is no easy fix. I have chosen to be proactive and engaged during the negotiations because my involvement is the right thing for Georgia and the right thing for America 's future. As the debate progresses, I will continue the fight to ensure that our nation is secure and our economy continues to thrive.

If you would like to receive timely email alerts regarding the latest congressional actions and my weekly e-newsletter, please sign up via my web site at: www.chambliss.senate.gov . Please do not hesitate to be in touch if I may ever be of assistance to you.

Did you notice those last two principles that are important to Georgians? "A meaningful temporary worker program that is truly temporary and does not provide a pathway to citizenship" and "No amnesty".

Um… Hello? Did Senator Chambliss even read the current draft of the bill before he voiced his support for it? Sure, it's easy for him to say "For me to support any final bill" blah blah blah, but if the initial bill doesn't even meet the expectations you have (as noted in his four priniciples) why would you even remotely support it?

He's right though, there is no easy fix. But… They introduced this bill late last week, it wasn't made public until the weekend, and they voted for cloture last night. It sounds to me like they are trying to make it just a little bit too easy.

While it appears they won't be debating this issue until after the Memorial Day weekend, we all need to take action. Below is a list of the Senators that voted for cloture last night. If one or both of your Senators are listed, I highly recommend you call them, email them, or fax them to make your voice heard. The worst thing we can do is sit back and do nothing. Make sure they understand your position on this bill, and don't let them sell out the American people.

Alaska: Murkowski (R-AK), Stevens (R-AK)
Arizona: Kyl (R-AZ)
Arkansas: Lincoln (D-AR), Pryor (D-AR)
California: Boxer (D-CA), Feinstein (D-CA)
Colorado: Salazar (D-CO)
Connecticut: Lieberman (D-CT)
Delaware: Carper (D-DE)
Florida: Martinez (R-FL)
Georgia: Chambliss (R-GA), Isakson (R-GA)
Hawaii: Akaka (D-HI), Inouye (D-HI)
Idaho: Craig (R-ID)
Illinois: Durbin (D-IL)
Indiana: Bayh (D-IN), Lugar (R-IN)
Iowa: Grassley (R-IA), Harkin (D-IA)
Kansas: Brownback (R-KS)
Kentucky: McConnell (R-KY)
Louisiana: Landrieu (D-LA)
Maine: Collins (R-ME), Snowe (R-ME)
Maryland: Cardin (D-MD), Mikulski (D-MD)
Massachusetts: Kennedy (D-MA)
Michigan: Levin (D-MI), Stabenow (D-MI)
Minnesota: Coleman (R-MN), Klobuchar (D-MN)
Mississippi: Cochran (R-MS), Lott (R-MS)
Missouri: Bond (R-MO), McCaskill (D-MO)
Nebraska: Hagel (R-NE), Nelson (D-NE)
Nevada: Ensign (R-NV), Reid (D-NV)
New Hampshire: Gregg (R-NH)
New Jersey: Lautenberg (D-NJ), Menendez (D-NJ)
New Mexico: Bingaman (D-NM), Domenici (R-NM)
New York: Schumer (D-NY)
North Carolina: Burr (R-NC)
North Dakota: Conrad (D-ND)
Ohio: Brown (D-OH), Voinovich (R-OH)
Oregon: Smith (R-OR), Wyden (D-OR)
Pennsylvania: Casey (D-PA), Specter (R-PA)
Rhode Island: Reed (D-RI), Whitehouse (D-RI)
South Carolina: Graham (R-SC)
Tennessee: Alexander (R-TN)
Utah: Bennett (R-UT), Hatch (R-UT)
Vermont: Leahy (D-VT)
Virginia: Warner (R-VA), Webb (D-VA)
Washington: Cantwell (D-WA), Murray (D-WA)
West Virginia: Rockefeller (D-WV)
Wisconsin: Feingold (D-WI), Kohl (D-WI)

In case you were wondering, the following Senators did not feel this issue was important enough to show up for the vote.

Biden (D-DE), Clinton (D-NY), Dodd (D-CT), Kerry (D-MA), McCain (R-AZ), Nelson (D-FL), and Obama (D-IL).

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