Amnesty Sent to Bargain Basement

The “grand bargainers” who were determined to leave no felon behind got their behinds kicked by the American people.

Their backroom deal to grant amnesty to illegal immigrants who sneaked into this country through the back door was killed by American voters who are fed up with bearing the high cost of cheap illegal labor.

The collapse of the amnesty bill underscores what happens when citizens are engaged: Grassroots trumps special interests.

Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said in a statement:

The rejection of this bill is a great credit to the determination of the American public to prevent a handful of senators and an unpopular lame duck president from radically altering this nation without the consent of the people. The Bush-Senate legislation would have had incalculable social, economic, cultural and environment consequences for the American people and their children, all of which would have been brought about by a bill that was negotiated in secret and with no public hearings.

In recent history, it would be hard to find a single issue or a single piece of legislation that generated the kind of public response that this attempt to hijack America’s future did.  The people of this country deserve a lot of credit for taking their roles as citizens in a functioning democracy seriously and stopping this disastrous piece of legislation. The response of the American public over the past three weeks demonstrates that public opinion, when constructively channeled, can make a real difference.

Illegals' sympathizers were loco to believe they could shove amnesty down our throats. This is not 1986 when the debate was framed by the business community, the illegal alien lobby and the mainstream media.

Sure, the MSM – old media – touted polls showing Americans allegedly support amnesty and published an “iconic photograph” of an anchor baby who had been separated from her mother.  BTW, the mother knew the potential consequences when she decided to give birth at American taxpayers’ expense.

But ordinary citizens used the Internet, email, talk radio, cable TV, and new media – blogs, podcasts and online petitions – to tell the story the MSM didn’t deem fit to print.

Concerned Americans, including citizen journalists, read the legislation, monitored developments, mobilized voters and demanded their voices be heard.

And we will remain vigilant and fight efforts to revive this assault on American sovereignty and identity.  It is, after all, our obligation to future generations to leave the country in better shape than we found it.

So Sen. Edward Kennedy can shout until he’s red in the face but Americans overwhelmingly reject his claim that legalizing 12 million lawbreakers would reduce illegal immigration and secure the borders.