The Cornyn Amendment Loses

Sen. Cornyn proposed an amendment to the Immigration Bill which lost. The amendment was poorly drafted, but problems with the Bill remain.

Cornyn's amendment would have prevented a "pathway" for all individuals who have already been caught and ordered deported but are defying a court order.

Well, OK.

However, there are other problems with the "pathway."

The Senate did pass another amendment sponsored by Mr. Kennedy that tightened rules on excluding gang members and terrorist supporters, but Mr. Cornyn said it would still allow sex offenders and repeat drunken drivers to remain in the country and get legal status.

AnkleBiting Pundits observes:

The Kennedy amendment, and the entire bill, only seems to bar illegals who commit “aggravated” felonies from ever becoming citizens. “Aggravated” felonies are defined in Section 1108(43) of the Title 18 of the U.S. Code (the Kennedy amendment also has a few “add-ons” crimes that would be a permanent bar to citizenship). I think if you actually took the time to look into it, you would see that only convictions for the most heinous crimes are permanent bars to citizenship.

And Sen. Sessions has noted a few other loopholes (also from AnkleBiters):

Illegal aliens with terrorism connections are not barred from getting amnesty;

Instead of ensuring that members of violent gangs such as MS 13 are deported after coming out of the shadows to apply for amnesty, the bill will allow violent gang members to get amnesty as long as they “renounce” their gang membership on their application.

The Bill is scheduled for another major vote today. Let's hope that it fails to move forward, or that the House will clean up some of this mess.