Border-wall issue divides Franken, Klobuchar

By Chris Steller
Thursday, July 09, 2009 at 8:15 am
Photo: The UpTake

Photo: The UpTake

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,” wrote poet Robert Frost. And U.S. Sen. Al Franken defines that something as all “relevant effective law enforcement agencies” — none of which, he says, love the wall between the United States and Mexico.

“Good fences make good neighbors,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar might quote in reply. She wants to see “a very good effort [along the border] … to make it harder to come in illegally.” A bill requiring completion of 700 miles of fence along the United States’ southern boundary divided the votes of Minnesota’s Democratic senators Wednesday.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, might have hurt any chance he had of gaining support of the Senate’s newest member on Tuesday when he drew a parallel between Franken’s election win and a south-of-the-border coup.

The two Minnesota senators — who only Tuesday couldn’t have been closer as they embraced after Franken’s swearing-in ceremony — also split their votes on a proposal requiring government contractors to use the online E-Verify system to determine whether job applicants have the right immigration status, among other requirements.

Franken was against, saying the current three-year E-Verify requirement allowed better oversight than would a permanent commitment. Klobuchar supported the measure, calling E-Verify “a good employer verification process so that employers aren’t hiring people that shouldn’t be in our country.” In fact, she said she would like to see it “made a little tougher.”

Do Klobuchar and Franken see eye to eye on enforcement along the Canadian border, which after all defines their own state’s northern boundary? After six months of suffering with Minnesota’s second Senate seat essentially unmanned, do they support the unmanned drones that this year began patrolling the skies above the Boundary Waters? Are new passport requirements adequate or does Minnesota also need a fence?

Frost had a thought on that too:

Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.

Comments

6 Comments

Michael H
Comment posted July 9, 2009 @ 8:36 am

No real surprise here. Klobuchar isn’t a liberal; Franken is.


Cohen
Comment posted July 9, 2009 @ 9:11 am

Senate must act, followed up by the House, and a comprehensive immigration bill MUST be signed by the President this year. I am sick of clouns and racists such as Jeff Sessions and Lou Dobbs demonizing millions of hard-working immigrants.Racism ALWAYS loses in America and a comprehensive immigration reform is a matter of when, not if!!!


Brittancus
Comment posted July 9, 2009 @ 1:01 pm

A (CFR) Council of foreign relations document calls for creating a “North American preference” so that employers can recruit low-paid workers from anywhere in North America. No longer will illegal aliens have to be smuggled across the border; employers can openly recruit foreigners willing to work for a fraction of U.S. wages. So it’s no wonder CFR is pushing for the Obama administration to almost immediately enact Immigration Reform. To understand what the CFR is up to the reader to–GOOGLE IT– and you will uncover the the devious Bush agreement with Mexican President Vicente Fox, and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin on March 23, 2005. The three adopted the “Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America” and assigned “working groups” to fill in the details. It is an ominous agenda to remove any restrictions on moving foreign labor between the 3 nations. Obviously is the start to rescind any laws relating to immigration enforcement, including a path to citizenship for the 13 to 20 plus million illegal workers and families already here–better known as BLANKET AMNESTY. Then millions more will try to settle in our country?

We are continuously lied to about the numbers and costs for these unfortunates, that is a massive strain on Americans economy and the taxpayer who foots the bill. You can believe what our government states or you can surf the net, or search out The Heritage Foundation that has calculated the AMNESTY will cost $2.5 TRILLION dollars out of your pocket. My feelings are that the unceasing bombardment of public anger on our–PUBLIC SERVANTS–elected politicians, has caused them to re-think E-Verify. But obviously the open border, free traders that is headed by US Chamber of Commerce has used their money and influence, so the comics in Washington dropped the NO-MATCH LETTER. In other words Every year, the Social Security Administration (SSA) informs thousands of employers via a “no-match” letter that certain employees’ names and corresponding Social Security numbers provided on Forms W-2 do not match SSA’s records. Which obviously uncovers illegal labor in the workplace.

For many decades we have been subjected to higher taxes to educate the children of foreigners, approve free health care, wick, food stamps, low income housing and many more handouts, that are undisclosed. Since the beginning of the Democratic reign of the leadership in Washington, have almost killed E-Verify, part of the Save Act, weakened the local police detainment (287(g) law, the Real ID Act. KEEP UP THE RIGOROUS BOMBARDMENT ON WASHINGTON SENATORS AND CONGRESSMAN 202-224-3121. Cannot emphasize the consequences for cheap labor, which will lead to irreversible–OVERPOPULATION. Find out the facts on the Internet, not what our government or newspapers dubiously feed us? Learn the truth also at NUMBERSUSA, CAPSWEB & AMERICANPATROL.


Mill
Comment posted July 9, 2009 @ 2:40 pm

The border wall is one of the most counterproductive projects our leaders have come up with. It will waste billions of dollars on an utterly ineffective solution to illegal border crossing.

The Israeli’s built such a wall. Ask Israeli’s if they are actually safer because of it. The evidence would suggest no.

Senator Klobuchar should be ashamed of supporting this nonsolution. Just she should be ashamed of slowing the shutter of Gitmo based on the nonsensical belief that we can’t incarcerate Gitmo prisoners safely in the continental US. If we can’t hold those few hundred guys safely, why do we spend hundreds of billions of dollars on criminal justice prisons and national defense?


Oregon Reader
Comment posted July 10, 2009 @ 5:38 pm

Just a little tidbit to ponder………..in an earlier and more primitive era, this nation built a transcontinental railroad in 7 years. We’re still waiting for the 700 miles of fence to be completed. I don’t suppose anyone is holding their breath.


No Border Wall
Comment posted July 20, 2009 @ 10:10 pm

Klobuchar is not much of a reader either, if she does not realize that her quote comes from the same Robert Frost poem as Franken’s. His sums up the point of the poem, though, while hers is from the point of view of Frost’s dim-witted neighbor.

Franken is absolutely right to vote against the border wall. It has already cost over $3.1 billion, and according to the Congressional Research Service it has had “no discernible impact” on the number of undocumented immigrants that enter the United States each year. The Border Patrol has repeatedly called it a “speed bump.” The Department of Homeland Security even ridiculed the amendment calling for more walls after it was passed. The border wall is just a prop for politicians who want to give voters a false sense of security, and welfare for Boeing and Kiewit, who are making billions on the construction contracts.


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