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Senate Action Imperils Immigration Bill

June 8, 2007

The so-called “grand bargain” immigration legislation, introduced by a bipartisan group of senators and supported by the White House, suffered a potentially deadly blow on the Senate floor on Thursday, June 7.

A pair of procedural votes doomed the bill, which had been loaded with amendments from Republicans and Democrats after two weeks of debate.

“We are finished with this for the time being,” said Sen. Harry Reid, (D-Nev.), the majority leader, indicating he would move the chamber’s agenda on to other issues.

The legislation sought to tackle a host of issues related to immigration reform, but ended up offending constituencies across the political spectrum. Many Republicans decried the bill’s path to citizenship as blanket amnesty and Democrats balked at the temporary worker program. The IBEW joined with the Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO, and other unions in lobbying against the legislation as creating a permanent underclass of guest workers and eroding the living standards of United States citizens. 

“As global economic policies have sucked good-paying jobs overseas, we have more than enough men and women willing to learn and take jobs in growing fields, including our own trade,” said IBEW International President Edwin D. Hill.

The IBEW is advocating for stepped-up border control, which does not need any vote of Congress, better enforcement of existing laws and enforcement of labor and immigration laws to punish those who exploit undocumented workers. The IBEW rejects guest worker programs.

“It makes me raging mad to hear politicians talk about jobs that ‘Americans won’t do’ when they fail to add the words, ‘at poverty wages,’” President Hill said.

BCTD President Edward Sullivan congratulated members, whom he credited for helping derail the legislation.

“Your efforts in the past few weeks were instrumental in this dramatic defeat,” Sullivan said. “Thanks to you, our message finally started resonating with U.S. senators, and it manifested itself in the vote last night.”