And the US Senate has determined that your best interests are not served by having a border fence along our southern border with Mexico.

From the WashingtonTimes.com:

Senators on Tuesday rejected building the 700 miles of double-tier border fencing Congress authorized just seven years ago, with a majority of the Senate saying they didn’t want to delay granting illegal immigrants legal status while the fence was being built.

The 54-39 vote to reject the fence shows the core of the immigration deal is holding. The vote broke mostly along party lines, though five Republicans, including Sen. Marco Rubio and the rest of the bill’s authors, voted against the fence, and two Democrats voted for it.

Please note that: Marco Rubio voted against the fence.

Republicans had offered the fence as a way to build the confidence of voters skeptical that the government will enforce its laws, but opponents said building more fencing is costly, would take too long, and shouldn’t be dictated by Washington.

“I think we should leave that to the best judgment of the Border Patrol,” said Sen. John McCain, one of the eight senators who wrote the immigration bill.

John McCain, a POW from the Vietnam era, has served his country well whilst in the military.  I believe he does not serve his country now, though he “represents” the state of Arizona, obviously a border state with Mexico.  This is a conflict that I cannot conjur or condone.  Mr McCain has served his time and needs to leave politics immediately.  Which, of course, he will not.

Sen. John Thune, South Dakota Republican, proposed the border fence amendment, which would have prevented the administration from granting any illegal immigrants legal status under the bill until at least 350 miles of double-tier fencing has been erected, and would withhold full citizenship rights until 700 total miles have been built.

Correct.  Thune proffered a logical amendment in which he required the government to do something actively and up front.  I concur.  I don’t trust the federal government.  They have given us many years of execrable performance (mostly the lack thereof) to justify this tanking of trust.

This was a bit of my personal “make or break” point, and the federal government has broken things once again.  They are men and women who are primarily interested in serving their own best interests of self, and the American Taxpayers can predominantly go straight to Hell.

Minutes after the border fence, senators also voted to weaken current law that requires the government to have biometric checks such as fingerprints or eye-scans for every visitor to the U.S. — a recommendation of the 9/11 commission that looked into the terrorist attacks on Washington and New York.

Read that again: weaken CURRENT law.  A “recommendation of the 9/11 commission that looked into the terrorist attacks on Washington and New York.”

Then the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) weighs in:

CBO: Immigration bill only stops 25 percent of illegal immigration

The Senate immigration bill will be a major boost to the federal budget but does relatively little to clamp down on illegal immigration — cutting the future flow by only about 25 percent — according to the Congressional Budget Office analysis of the bill, released Tuesday afternoon.

Under the bill, which legalizes illegal immigrants and invites in foreign workers, immigration will total 10.4 million more people over the next decade and 16.2 million by 2033.

So: another “feel good” bill which is predicated, again, on naught but emotions, leaving facts and reality kicked to the curb?

Apparently so.

With a caveat to John Boehner via Politico.com:

Dana Rohrabacher warns John Boehner on speakership

By REBECCA ELLIOTT | 6/18/13 7:27 AM EDT

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) says Speaker John Boehner should be ousted if he rams through an immigration bill without majority Republican support.

I don’t.

BZ