Sunday, May 20, 2007

The Fine Print of the Immigration Bill

When I posted earlier about the devil being in the details, I was right on the money. Hugh Hewitt, a law Professor and blogger among other things has been pouring over the details since the 700 page summary was released and spent a very productive weekend for our benefit. So far he has broken it down in 8 parts and I'm sure he is not through with this large and complicated document. It is actually worse than I thought. His concluding statement in Part I is spot on.

Perhaps I am wrong, but I can only read Section 601(h) as a massive undercutting of the entire concept of "triggers," an undercutting which various talking points have not underscored or quantified, which points to why the jam down demanded by Senator McCain is so reprehensible. Ordinary citizens have almost zero chance of figuring out what this bill intends and how its provisions will interact, and the proxies on whom they might rely will hardly have any opportunity to fully vet the language.

As I noted below, the president and the GOP Senate leadership need to postpone any cloture vote until the law is examined, debated and amended.


Scott at Powerline gives us a little background on the "F*ck you" incident and what really went on. Well worth reading it.

UPDATE: Be sure to check out N.Z. Bear's online version of the draft immigration bill which allows for section-by-section comments.