Rep. Heath Shuler's immigration enforcement-only bill has picked up the endorsements of a union and a key small business advocacy group, both of which are major coups for Mr. Shuler and his co-sponsors.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers said the bill would help to stop "unfair wage competition," which it said results from mass immigration. And the National Federation of Independent Business said the bill could help bring order to what is turning into a patch-work, state-by-state approach to regulating businesses' hiring practices.
The IBEW was a prominent opponent of the massive immigration bill that failed in the Senate earlier this year, arguing that allowing more guest workers into the country would hurt American workers.
NFIB also opposed the Senate bill, as well as an earlier enforcement-only bill that passes the House in 2005.
The bill, known as the SAVE Act, reached 100 co-sponsors yesterday as rank-and-file Republicans sign on. Still, as of this time no member of either party's top leadership has signed onto the bill, suggesting the bill is caught up in an interesting game of political chess.
— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times
Comments (2)
Where's the House Republican leadership on this one? I'd think theyd be jumping right on this, as a way of forcing Democrats to take a stand on the issue, and once again throwing many Dems for a loop, just like the Spitzer license issue has.
Posted by D. | November 14, 2007 4:05 PM
Amazing that we have a debate about ENFORCING our laws ! ALL of the politicians who support Illegal Aliens who break and have broken our laws MUST GO !
Posted by bill | November 19, 2007 11:06 AM