More Bad News for a Bad Immigration Bill

More Bad News for a Bad Immigration Bill

Speaking of taxes, as my Human Events colleague Robert Novak reported, there was yet another stealth tax increase -- this time in the Senate immigration bill -- that could be the nail in the coffin for that amnesty legislation.

In yet another example of a dysfunctional Senate, senators debating and voting on the immigration bill apparently forgot about the Constitution. Without a word of opposition, they added an amendment that would make workers here illegally pay back taxes before applying for citizenship. Fair enough, right? But there is a problem. The Constitution prohibits revenue-raising legislation from originating in the Senate. Even if it were Constitutional, which it is not, do you really believe that all of these workers and their employers who broke the law would get together to figure out how much they owe the government?

In any event, the Senate most likely will be forced to re-pass the immigration bill without the revenue-raising component. But what are the chances of that, given the fact that Americans are learning more everyday about its failure to secure our borders? First we learned that the bill would increase legal immigration by 60 million people over the next 20 years and grant amnesty to an estimated eight to 10 million who are already here illegally. Second, we learned that it raids Social Security to ensure benefits for people who have been working here illegally. Then we discovered that the bill requires consultation with officials of Mexico's government before any fence construction can take place. And now we learn that it's plain old unconstitutional. What will we -- and the senators who passed the legislation -- learn next about the Senate immigration bill?


Newt Gingrich