Senate Democrats Crafting Democrat-Only Immigration Reform Plan

By GottaLaff

(Edgar Rios, left, and Marcos Gonzalez rally against the Arizona immigration bill before it was signed into law Friday.The Associated Press. Via)

Who do these Dems thing they are, leaders?

A trio of leading Democratic Senators on Wednesday began working on contingency plans for pushing a Democrat-only immigration reform bill if they are unable to convince Republicans to join the effort this year.

Why, one might mistake them for people with... spines:

An emerging immigration proposal by three Democratic senators calls for more federal enforcement agents and other border security-tightening benchmarks before illegal immigrants could become legal U.S. residents.

And who exactly are these spunky senators? Harry Reid of Nevada, Charles Schumer of New York, and Robert Menendez.

The benchmarks include additional Border Patrol officers and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to combat smuggling; more ICE inspectors at work sites; an increased number of ICE officers assigned to detect fraudulent documents, and better ways to determine fakes; more personnel to check for contraband at ports of entry; additional resources to prosecute drug and human smugglers and illegal border crossers, and for deportations.

How could this possibly work? Targeting employers who hire undocumented workers? What? That's unheard of!

And there is nothing in there about racial profiling. They obviously didn't think this through.

Before the benchmarks are met, the Department of Homeland Security could begin registering, fingerprinting and screening illegal immigrants, and considering them for an interim legal status. That would allow them to work in the U.S. and travel outside it.

But... but... they didn't include anything about skin color or hair or shoes! This will never work. It's not nearly racist enough.

Oh, Rushpublics? Time to get the cots out. It's filibuster time.

Bob Menendez to Head DSCC

As mentioned yesterday, looks like it is going to Menendez.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), "the architect of consecutive Democratic Senate election sweeps, will step down as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and hand the reins of the party's fundraising and candidate-recruitment arm" to Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), according to CQ Politics.

(snip)

Roll Call: "It appears that Senate Democrats can play offense in 2010 for the third cycle in a row. Democrats must defend 16 Senate seats next cycle, but Republicans must defend 19 seats -- including those held by more than a half-dozen incumbents in competitive states."

2010 looks to be a very good year.