Senate Endorses Amnesty For Felons

Just a quick note on Senate Amendment 1184 that was proposed by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX).

A bipartisan immigration bill narrowly survived a potentially fatal challenge on Wednesday when the Senate turned back a Republican bid to limit the illegal immigrants who could gain lawful status.

The close vote on a proposal by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, to bar felons — including those court-ordered to be deported — from legalization reflected the delicate position of the contentious immigration bill, which remains under threat from the right and the left.

The vote was 51-46 against the amendment. Democrats succeeded in sucking support from Cornyn's proposal by winning adoption of a rival version that would bar a more limited set of criminals, including certain gang members and sex offenders, from gaining legalization. The Senate backed that amendment 66-32.

Let's think about this for a moment.

This amendment would have prevented all convicted felons from obtaining the new Z-Visa. This amendment would have prevented known terrorists and gang members from obtaining new Z-Visas.

Instead, the Senate approved Senator Kennedy's amendment which allows some convicted felons to obtain the new Z-Visas, including those who have already been through the process and convicted, who are now waiting deportation. That deportation would become null and void the moment they obtained the Z-Visa.

A majority of our nation's senators voted to defeat this bill. Who in their right mind would vote to allow criminals to come into our country freely?

The following GOP members did:

Craig (R-ID), Domenici (R-NM), Graham (R-SC), Hagel (R-NE), Kyl (R-AZ), Lugar (R-IN), Martinez (R-FL), McCain (R-AZ), Specter (R-PA), Voinovich (R-OH).

That's right… If just three of these had any sense, the amendment would have passed.

[Hat Tip: Polipundit]