Just got off the phone with the office of Senator Chambliss.

I was calling to ask his position on the remaining immigration related amendments to the Iraq Supplemental Spending Bill, and I was informed by his staffer that the powers that be are still working on the final version of the bill, and they don't even know yet what the final version will include.

I was reassured that Senator Chambliss is against the "amnesty amendment" but the staffer did not make it clear where he stood on the other immigration related amendments that were part of the bill the last time I called.

Keep your heads up people, it sounds to me like they are trying to pull a fast one again, like they did last year when they tried to push amnesty through without people knowing about it.

Make that call to your senator or fax them now. Let them know where you stand.

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NumbersUSA is reporting that Harry Reid has pulled the amesty amendment from the Iraq Supplemental Spending Bill.

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Ten Republican Senators have gone on record to express their disappointment with the immigration related amendments added to the Iraq Supplemental Spending Bill.

Dear Majority Leader Reid:

We write to express disappointment that the Senate Appropriations Committee chose to include in the War Supplemental more than 100 pages of immigration language that would grant legal status to more than one million illegal alien agricultural workers and their families. We urge you to remove these controversial provisions from the bill so we can enact essential funding for our troops without delay. If these provisions remain in the bill, you can expect a vigorous debate on immigration policy.

The letter was signed by:

Charles Grassley(R-IA), Jeff Sessions (R-AL), David Vitter (R-LA), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Johnny Isakson (R-GA), Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), James Inhofe(R-OK), John Barrasso (R-WY), Elizabeth Dole (R-NC), and Jim Bunning (R-KY).

I quite proud that Georgia's Senators represent 1/5th of that group. All of these senators should be commended for their willingness to stand up for their constituents.

The Senate started discussion of the Iraq Supplemental Spending Bill last night, and the amendments for the bill could come up for discussion and vote at any time. It is imperative that you contact your senators right now. Do not wait.

Senator Vitter will be introducing his own amendment in the morning. His amendment will simply strike all of the immigration amnesty language from the bill.

You must take a moment out of your day to let your Senators know that you do not support amnesty for illegal immigrants. Let them know that you are watching them and the vote on this bill by contacting your senators or sending them a fax. Please hurry, before it's too late.

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It's time to pick up the phone people. The topic of amnesty has returned to Capitol Hill and we must do everything we can to defeat it.

As you know, Senator Diane Feinstein has introduced an amendment to the Iraq Supplemental Spending Bill that would grant amnesty to over 1.35 million illegal immigrants and their families.

The Feinstein Amendment, also known as AgJOBS Amnesty would grant illegal immigrants "emergency agricultural worker status" for five years if they could prove they have worked in agriculture roughly 22 weeks in the past four years.

They would be required to file an application for this amnesty status during an 18-month period that would begin 6 months after the anmesty was passed into law. An 18-month filing period that would basically render all other immigration enforcement null and void because any illegal immigrant could claim they wanted to file an application for the amnesty. As long as they were not convicted criminals and they paid a $250 "fine", every illegal immigrant in the country could attempt to make a claim under the AgJOBS Amnesty program.

Once they met the minimum requirements, they would be allowed to

• Bring their spouse and children to join them in the United States
• Obtain a valid Social Security number
• Obtain immunity from prosecution for any illegal use of a Social Security number

In order to keep their "emergency" status they would be required to complete 100 work days in the agricultural field. Of course, they could do what they wanted the other 265 days each year, and any employers who hired them would not be violating any laws since they would be here legally.

Those with the five year amnesty would also have to pay federal income taxes. But get this… Only for their "legal" employment. Yeah, I bet you can read the writing between those lines.

I just got off the phone with both of my Senators offices. The staffer at the office of Senator Chambliss informed me that he is against the AgJOBS amendment, and Sen. Isakson's office informed me that he will be voting no when the amendment reaches the floor.

If you are against giving illegal immigrants amnesty, which I am sure you are, then take a moment to sign up with NumbersUSA. From the NumbersUSA site you can easily send faxes to voice your displeasure with this amendment directly to your Senators. They also make it easy to find the information you need to call your Senators to tell them how you feel.

The topic of amnesty is going to keep coming up on the Hill and the only way we can defeat it, is if we all stand together and defeat any measure than supports it.

For more information on the AgJOBS Amnesty, read this PDF file from NumbersUSA

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The immigration amnesty forces are at work again, thanks to Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA).

Last week, Senator Feinstein introduced an amendment to the Iraq spending bill that will result in amnesty for millions of illegal aliens in our country. On Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the amendment by a vote of 17-12.

It's time we all took a few moments out of our day to phone and fax our Senators as soon as possible. It's time to remind them all that the majority of American citizens do not support any amnesty legislation and we find these tactics being taken by Sen. Feinstein as a complete disregard of the will of the people.

I'm sure you remember the last time we had to take a stand and remind our Senators that we would not take their actions lying down. Call them now. Let them know you do not approve of any immigration measure that does not address true immigration reform.

For more information on the amendments being added to the bill, you can visit Techography, where Joe has pointed out the specifics.

Senator Vitter is already planning to offer an amendment which would kill the amendment and Senator Sessions is mobilizing the troops, so to speak, to make sure this measure does not make it through the Senate.

This measure could come up on the Senate floor as early as Wednesday, so it's imperative that you contact your Senators right now, as soon as possible, to voice your concerns.

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Senator Lindsey Grahamnesty opened his piehole again…

In an interview earlier this week, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. _ a backer of the sidetracked immigration bill _ said the one-at-a-time approach may prove impossible, even for tougher border-enforcement measures that now seem popular.

"The only way we're going to get Ag jobs or DREAM Act" or pathways to legal status for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, Graham said, "is to do it together. This idea of 'Just do the enforcement,' there are no votes for that."

There are no votes for enforcement? Is he kidding?

I guess we can just forget about the Secure Fence Act of 2006 which passed in the Senate and House by a significant margin and has already been signed into law.

Does he not realize that the 53 votes against cloture last week were a signal that the American people are demanding enforcement first?

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) gets it.

"The American people believe that until we're able to secure our borders and enforce our laws, taking additional steps is really not in the best interests of the country"

Senator David Vitter (R-LA) gets it, and so does Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA).

"There should be a very strong sense of urgency in this country to simply carry out the law, the mandate, for 854 miles of fence that we passed in the 109th Congress"

In fact, it seems that Senator Grahamnesty is one of just a few Republican Senators that just doesn't get it. Hopefully when it comes to his re-election, he just wont get that either.

Captain Ed asks, "Now what?"

Noam Askew has some post-cloture vote analysis.

The death of the Amnesty Bill is a defeat for the Senate Democratic leadership. If Scary Harry hadn't agreed to pushing this bill by unorthodox means, we might still be debating it.

Michael Illions has a summary of candidates and how they voted. You need to remember this information come election day.

Ted Kennedy kept asking, "What are you for?" We kept responding, "Secure borders", but he wasn't paying attention. Even after the vote, he had no idea how many people opposed it.

Sam Brownback had trouble following the leader. Maybe he couldn't decide which vote would be most popular until the end. Tsk tsk. He probably wishes now that he missed the vote. Not quite the type of person we need in the White House, is it?

"The American people won today".

The immigration quote of the day comes from Vince Lombardi, via John Hawkins,

"I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle-victorious."

President Bush looks like he could cry.

I guess President Bush is going to have to wait for that bill signing after all…

We, the people, made a difference today. We stopped this bill for the second time. We refused to surrender, and we made an impact. Heck, we even brought down the Senate phone system today.

I want to thank those U.S. Senators who had the backbone to stand up and object to the way Harry Reid was conducting the debate (or lack thereof). I want to thank them for knowing what was right and not backing down when almost everyone else in the Senate seemed to be opposed to them. I want to thank them for representing the people, not only of their home states, but of the entire United States Of America.

A few weeks ago, President Bush asked the Senate to find the courage to do the right thing, and today as a group, they finally found it. Yes, we sent them to our nation's capitol to handle the tough issues, but we did so with the idea that they would listen to our opinions, and not special interest groups, when it was time to make those tough decisions. We have a lot to do on matters pertaining to immigration, and I recommend that the Senate start with securing our borders. President Bush was able to find $4.4 billion to sweeten the immigration bill with. If he is serious about immigration reform, and securing our borders, maybe he will recommend that Congress appropriate that $4.4 billion for border security and enforcement of our current laws.

Most of all though, tonight I want to thank you, my readers, for doing your part to kill the Amnesty Bill. Whether you called your Senators, emailed them, faxed them, or just helped spread the word so others would know to call theirs. You made a difference. You saved our country.

For that, I am eternally grateful.

From Johnny Isakson's website:

“It is clear we have a crisis in confidence among the American people over our commitment to secure the border,” Isakson said. “Because past promises have yet to be fulfilled, the confidence level in the Congress and in the Administration to secure the border and to pay for enforcement measures is too low for immigration reform to proceed.”

…

“We pass emergency supplementals for various things in this body. We’ve done it in response to Katrina. We’ve done it in response to Iraq. I would submit that the American people would tell you there’s no greater emergency right now than securing our border,” Isakson said. “An authorization is a promise, and an appropriation is a commitment. It is time that Congress makes a commitment and makes border security a reality.”

I am still quite peeved at both Isakson and Chambliss, but seeing that Isakson is not up for re-election in 2008, he has a little more time to prove he will actually start listening to the people from the State of Georgia again.

From Senator Chambliss' website:

A lot of people have asked me why I became involved in this process initially, and there is a very simple answer: folks in Georgia sent me to Washington to engage in the issues that are important to America, and if we don’t secure the border and fix our broken immigration system our children and grandchildren will suffer the consequences of our failure to act.

Senator Isakson and I participated in the process early on because we wanted to ensure that our views and concerns were expressed and that, first and foremost, the border security triggers were included in the bill. I believe our contribution to the process was critical in strengthening key components of the legislation. While it wasn’t incumbent that everybody agree with the overall bill presented to the American people, it was important that we have a meeting of the minds to allow a full and fair debate on this critical issue. Unfortunately, the parameters that the Majority Leader set for this historic debate did not allow all senators the opportunity to offer and vote on amendments to the legislation. I believe this is too important an issue to restrict the rights of senators and the voices of their constituents.

Too often politicians talk and don’t listen. Georgians made their voices heard loud and clear and we have listened. The resounding opinion we heard was: we do not trust the federal government to enforce the laws in this new legislation because it has never enforced our immigration laws in the past; we need to secure the border the first and then deal with the collateral issues. Due to the tremendous response from Georgians, Senator Isakson and I communicated to President Bush that Congress must pass, and he should sign, a supplemental appropriations bill to fully fund the necessary expenditures to secure our borders first and separately from larger immigration reform legislation.

The debate must continue, because the status quo is not working. I will continue fighting for border security and I will continue to oppose amnesty for those who have broken our laws. Georgians demand no less than our fullest commitment to this critical issue.

I must say, I was quite disappointed with him during the first Amnesty Bill battle, but he came around before the second battle ensued. The question now is, do I support him come election day? We'll see what he does between now and then.

They listened to us. They stood for us. They fought for us. They are heroes.