Senator David Vitter (R–LA) has “real and fundamental concerns with the so-called ‘Gang of Eight’ bill”—and he took to the Senate floor last week to explain each.
We’ve highlighted the Senator’s six problems with the comprehensive legislation below and encourage you to watch his powerful 15-minute floor speech above.
1) Repeats the past mistake of granting amnesty now and enforcing the law later.
“An immediate amnesty, promises of enforcement…that’s not good enough, particularly when we have decades, decades of the federal government, republicans and democrats, who have promised this before and have never—have never delivered.”
2) Does not emphasize border security.
“It doesn’t enforce the law and it doesn’t enforce the border, particularly the troublesome southern border with Mexico, and it doesn’t enforce other enforcement provisions—doesn’t actually guarantee that those are put into place and executed in an effective way.”
3) Gives benefits to immigrants that are granted amnesty, therefore incentivizing more illegal immigrants to enter our country.
“I’m very concerned that we will continue the present status quo which is significant benefits being available to these immigrants which act as a magnet to…other illegal immigrants to come into the country.”
4) Hides the massive $6 trillion cost to American taxpayers, just like Obamacare.
“The authors of this bill have been very, very clever. They saw that cost issue coming and they devised a bill so that the big costs of the bill are outside the 10-year budget window…. [This is] exactly the same approach that the proponents of Obamacare put forward.”
5) Treats legal immigrants and people who are waiting in line in the current immigration system unfairly.
“It puts some people…ahead of them in line and really dishonors the fact that these ‘would-be’ legal immigrants are following the rules now and following the law now.”
6) Might lower wages for hard-working Americans and legal immigrants.
“I am very concerned that this would depress wages in the United States for many, many hard-working Americans, legal immigrants, and others who have followed the law—who are working hard in a very, very tough economy now.”
