Even Amnesty Advocates See Gaping Holes in S. 744

According to New York Senator Chuck Schumer, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act’s original sponsor, his bill will pass with a 70 vote majority. However, one of S. 744’s co-sponsors is less confident. New Jersey’s Robert Menendez says that as of today, the bill doesn’t have a filibuster-proof 60 votes. filibuster-proof 60 votes.

But in the most revealing comment on S.744’s eventual fate, Vermont’s junior Senator Bernie Sanders told the Washington Post that despite his long-standing amnesty advocacy and his strong support of the DREAM Act, he can’t escape the conclusion that the bill is nothing more than a transparent blank check for unlimited cheap labor.

To quote Sanders precisely about S.744, “This is a massive effort to attract cheap labor.” [Why Bernie Sanders is Skeptical about Guest Workers, by Dylan Matthews, Washington Post, May 25, 2013]

Sanders’ logic echoes the thoughts and concerns of millions who oppose the amnesty bill. Said Sanders to reporter Dylan Matthews:

“What I do not support is, under the guise of immigrant reform, a process pushed by large corporations which results in more unemployment and lower wages for American workers.”

Taking a page from Senator Jeff Sessions, the most ardent defender of American workers during the rigged Judiciary Committee hearings earlier in May, Sanders added that the United States remains in a severe recession, with a 14 percent U-6 unemployment rate and even higher unemployment for young Americans and blacks.

Just like his Vermont college and Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, Sanders has a F- NumbersUSA immigration report card. Yet S. 744 is so transparent with regard to American worker displacement that even a lifelong, liberal pro-amnesty Senator, Independent but who caucuses with Democrats, is concerned that in his words, “the middle class in this country is disappearing” and real wages for millions of Americans have either declined or remained stagnant.

If Sanders understands the consequences to American workers if S.744 passes, then surely Senate Republicans and moderate Democrats see the same truths and enough would vote against it to kill the bill in the Senate.