AMNESTY FOR ALL

By Michelle Malkin

I don't know how many times I've pointed out that amnesty for illegal aliens = amnesty for their employers. The Washington Times spells it out today in "Senate bill protects employers of illegal aliens from penalties"--and the Orwellian open-borders double-speakers huff and buff and try to bluff:

Among those who will be cleared of past crimes under the Senate's proposed immigration-reform bill would be the businesses that have employed the estimated 10 million illegal aliens eligible for citizenship and that provided the very "magnet" that drew them here in the first place.

Buried in the more than 600 pages of legislation is a section titled "Employer Protections," which states: "Employers of aliens applying for adjustment of status under this section shall not be subject to civil and criminal tax liability relating directly to the employment of such alien."

Supporters of the legislation insist that such provisions do not amount to "amnesty."

"The legislation we are considering today is not amnesty," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter said last week. "That is a pejorative term, really a smear term used to denigrate the efforts at comprehensive immigration reform. This is not amnesty because amnesty means a pardon of those who have broken the law."

Mr. Specter, Pennsylvania Republican, and others argue that the bill is not amnesty for illegal aliens because they will have to pay $2,000 in fines before they gain citizenship.

The law does not, however, provide for such fines against employers who have broken the law by hiring the illegals.

It is left to Sen. Robert Byrd--yes, Bobby Byrd--to talk straight:

Sen. Robert C. Byrd, West Virginia Democrat, vehemently opposes "this effort to waive the rules for lawbreakers and to legalize the unlawful actions of undocumented workers and the businesses that illegally employ them."

Amnesties, he said, "are the dark underbelly of our immigration process."

How stupid of the Republican elite to put themselves on the opposite side and give the likes of Byrd such an opening. Message to Arlen Specter: What part of amnesty don't you understand?

One GOP Senator with his head screwed on straight is Jeff Sessions. Can we have 100 of him, please?

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Related:

David Orland observes: Amnesty, alas, is the least of it.

Allah tracks Vicente Fox's U.S. victory tour.