The Significance Of March 6th
December 2, 2008 by Thomas Esparza
Filed under Families
The Significance Of March 6th
It appears that the 111th Congress will turn the corner on
immigration benefits legislation. The betting appears to be that
the Republicans will pick their battles carefully after the
recent drubbing at the polls, and perhaps they will hold their
fire on immigration, and will oppose the expected health care
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initiative instead. In the Senate at least, things are clearer as
to where to start the debate – while Kennedy-Kyl went down to a
resounding defeat, McCain-Kennedy easily passed – so a benefit-
heavy approach appears to be the winner over an enforcement-heavy
one.
The opening salvos over immigration in the 111th Congress will be
fired very early, before March 6th, which is when E-Verify runs
out of authorization absent an act of Congress. Sen. Menendez
(hopefully joined by like minded allies) will not permit re-
authorization for E-Verify without establishing the principle
that the 111th Congress is benefits-minded on immigration. This
first battle will indicate how we should expect the rest of the
111th Congress to go on immigration, and the immigrant community
will be watching every actor in this early fight closely. The
Senate has a number of options on how to proceed (as below,
together with our comments):
Good Luck Chuck psp Chicken Little buy Enact E-Verify for 5 years without benefits – unlikely given
the immigrant-friendly composition of the 111th.
Enact E-Verify for 5 years with benefits, such as recapture of
500,000 visas – this is the option that Sen. Menendez was pushing
in the 110th Congress.
Enact E-Verify for a few months with benefits, such as
recapture or the rebirth of 245i in the form that the Senate
passed and which was before the House in the morning of 9/11 -
this is the best option since it would ensure that the antis have
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a stake in CIR, and would re-establish 245i as national policy
without benefiting too many folks prior to CIR (perhaps a few
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tens of thousands would benefit by the extension of 245i to the
mid-August 2001 deadline of the old bill).
We strongly suspect that some variant of the third option is what
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Congress will ultimately end up doing. It is unlikely that the
action will all be on the Senate side – the House has much to
prove after the debacle of the Sensenbrenner bill in the 109th
and the do-nothing 110th. House Democratic leaders may well be
preparing the March 6th surprise, particularly since this would
be an appropriations measure, which the Constitution requires
the House to originate. No matter what happens, or does not
happen, March 6th is the critical day to watch – the die for
immigration benefits in the 111th Congress will be cast by then.
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