Portene slås op

Så vedtog USA´s Senat sit forslag til, hvordan den amerikanske indvandrings-lovgivning skal reformeres. Som ventet var det en groft udvandet udgave af Repræsentanternes Hus´ forslag, og straks var der vrede konfrontationer mellem de to fløje blandt republikanerne når det kommer til indvandringen.

På den ene side er der slapperne i især senatet med Præsident Bush i front, der vil vedtage love, men helst ikke ser at de har nogen som helst indflydelse. De er for en stor dels skyld financieret af storkapitalien, og ser som sådan intet problem i, at der er 12 millioner illegale indvandrere i landet, så længe de leverer billig arbejdskraft til industrien. At samme illegale indvandrere er en underskudsforretning for landet er de pænt ligeglade med - samme gruppe af republikanere har, med en amerikansk bekendts ord "spenderet penge som en fuld sømand på landlov" og derved øget landets udlandsgæld til over 2.500 milliarder dollars. De vil, reelt, føre Demokratisk politik på Republikanske stemmer. I dette tilfælde er det da også demokraternes stemmer der gør, at de har fået det nominelt republikanske lovforslag igennem.

På den anden side er der strammerne i især Repræsentanternes Hus, der mener at illegale indvandrere ikke skal have lov til at lukrere på at de har brudt loven - for eksempel ved at de ifølge senatets lovforslag bare skal ansøge om at blive legaliseret. Et par reaktioner fra Repræsentanternes Hus og Senatet beskriver meget godt, hvor linierne går:

"Regardless of what the president says, what he is proposing is amnesty," said Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. the lawmaker who would lead House negotiators in any attempt to draft a compromise immigration bill later this year.

The blast by Sensenbrenner, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee' name, came on the day the White House dispatched top presidential aide Karl Rove to ease the concerns of rebellious House Republicans, and also coincided with a clash among GOP senators on the Senate floor.

"This is not amnesty, so let's get the terms right," Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska lectured fellow Republicans who condemned the bill. "Come on. Let's stop the nonsense."

"It sort of reminds me of the famous line, `Methinks thou dost protest too much,'" responded Sen. David Vitter, R-La., who repeatedly described the legislation as an amnesty bill for lawbreakers.

Ud over hvad der mest af alt er en amnesti for de 12 millioner illegale indvandrere slår Senatets forslag også portene op for en masse-indvandring uden paralleler i verdenshistorien:

The Senate immigration reform bill would allow for up to 193 million new legal immigrants -- a number greater than 60 percent of the current U.S. population -- in the next 20 years, according to a study released yesterday.

"The magnitude of changes that are entailed in this bill -- and are largely unknown -- rival the impact of the creation of Social Security or the creation of the Medicare program," said Robert Rector, senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation who conducted the study.

Although the legislation would permit 193 million new immigrants in the next two decades, Mr. Rector estimated that it is more likely that about 103 million new immigrants actually would arrive in the next 20 years. ..

Although that "amnesty" would be granted to about 10 million illegals, the real growth in the immigrant population would come later.

As part of the bill, the annual flow of legal immigrants allowed into the U.S. would more than double to more than 2 million annually. In addition, the guest-worker program in the bill would bring in 325,000 new workers annually who could later apply for citizenship.

That population would grow exponentially from there because the millions of new citizens would be permitted to bring along their extended families. Also, Mr. Sessions said, the bill includes "escalating caps," which would raise the number of immigrants allowed in as more people seek to enter the U.S.

"The impact of this increase in legal immigration dwarfs the magnitude of the amnesty provisions," said Mr. Rector, who has followed Congress for 25 years. He called the bill "the most dramatic piece of legislation in my experience."

Mr. Rector based his numerical projection on the number of family members that past immigrants have sponsored.

Immigration into the U.S. would become an "entitlement," Mr. Sessions said. "The decision as to who may come will almost totally be controlled by the desire of the individuals who wish to immigrate to the United States rather than by the United States government."