UPDATED: America dodges a bullet ... for now

The NYT reports:

Effort to Pass Immigration Bill Collapses in Senate

Blame and Uncertainty as Immigration Deal Fails

To which I can only add:

O Lord our God arise,
Scatter her enemies
And make them fall;
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On Thee our hopes we fix,
God save us all!

Mickey Kaus has been all over the politics of immigration lately. He points to an AP report on why the Senate Democrats let the bill die Friday:

In private as well as public, Reid and Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, who heads the party's campaign effort, said they did not want to expose rank-and-file Democrats to votes that would force them to choose between border security and immigrant rights, only to wind up with legislation that would be eviscerated in future negotiations with the House.

Outside the Senate, several Democratic strategists concluded that the best politics was to allow the bill to die, leaving Republicans with a failed initiative in the Senate at a time when the GOP in the House had passed a measure making illegal immigrants subject to felony charges.

Mickey comments:

In other words, there was a penalty to pay with voters for looking soft, and the Dems chickened out of paying it.That's the advantage to the Dems of killing the deal: Not just that it won them voters who didn't like the House bill. It saved them from voters who didn't like Specter's semi-amnesty bill.

In VDARE.com, Donald A. Collins lists Dr. John Tanton's 24 questions about any guest worker program. Here are some of them, reorganized for greater impact:

1. Will spouses and children be able to accompany the guest worker? Just minor children, or adult ones as well?

5. Will any children born in the United States, automatically become U.S. citizens?

8. Will those who marry a U.S. citizen, or have a child while here, be able to stay beyond the six-year period? Would a man who fathers an "illegitimate" child qualify for citizenship on petition by the child when it reaches legal majority?

3. Will the children be eligible to attend school, and if so, at whose expense? In what language(s) will they be educated?

4. How will health care services - including birth control - be provided and paid for?

2. Will any or all of the above be able to demand government services in the language of their choice, per President Clinton's Executive Order 13166? Will the workers be required to have at least a minimal working knowledge of English?

10. If the job for which the worker came to the United States evaporates or otherwise disappears, will workers be required to take a different job, or returned home? If relocation is required, who will pay the expense? Will they be eligible for unemployment? If so, who pays the premium?

12. Will the workers be able to purchase a car, and obtain a U.S. drivers license? If so, will they be required to purchase automobile insurance, and will this be available to them at a cost they can likely afford?

19. If conditions have not improved in the home country after six years, what are the chances that the guest workers will go home? [More]

VDARE will start a fund-raising drive Sunday night, and after the last two weeks of disinformation from the press and the Senate about immigration, all I can say is:

VDARE: We need it now more than ever.

So, please consider giving. (My special account for VDARE donations is here.)

A reader answers my question about why the press has shown so little interest in exposing the blatant corruption by which employers of illegal immigrants got Congressmen to warn off the INS from enforcing the 1986 employer sanctions:

Because at the same time, the civil rights organizations (ACLU, La Raza, etc) were pounding employers for having the unmitigated gall to actually check up on whether employees were legal or not. It gave employers a great out - "Hey we don't want to waste time, money, and effort on checking up on legality and besides when we do we get sued." MSM understands violating some protected minority's rights even if they don't understand national security etc.

Ah, yes, Congressmen on the take in the cause of political correctness... What could be more praiseworthy? No story here, just move along folks...

A reader writes:

We dodged the bullet this time but I wonder how much it matters. As matters stand now, we have massive invasion levels of illegal immigration and stealing of resources every year. The illegals increase every year and more and more jobs are lost to them.

With the current state of affairs, the cheap labor folks get everything they want. The race panderers get everything they want. The elites with a ‘z’ ending to their names get what they want. Why would they want change?

The only loser in the current cabal is the Democrats who have to illegally register the illegals to vote. However, that doesn’t seem to bother them. In my state (Washington) they just give them driver’s licenses and that is all you need to vote. You do have to check a box that says you are a legal citizen so I am sure that stops most of the illegals.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer