The Senate held its first votes on the illegal immigration issue, and decided not to secure the border before discussing amnesty or any other immigration changes by a vote of 55-40. The following 18 Republicans voted against dealing with border security first:

Bob Bennett (UT)
Sam Brownback (KS)
Lincoln Chafee (RI)
Norm Coleman (MN)
Susan Collins (ME)
Larry Craig (ID)
Mike DeWine (OH)
Lindsey Graham (SC)
Chuck Hagel (NE)
Richard Lugar (IN)
Mel Martinez (FL)
Lisa Murkowski (AK)
Richard Shelby (AL)
Olympia Snow (ME)
Arlen Specter (PA)
Ted Stevens (AK)
George Voinovich (OH)
John Warner (VA)

The following 4 Republicans did not bother to vote:

Thad Cochran (MS)
Judd Gregg (NH)
Trent Lott (MS)
John McCain (AZ)

Please call and email them today.

Securing our southern border should be a priority, not a political ploy. It's telling that those who favor amnesty insist on a "comprehensive" bill. They know that most Americans do not want amnesty granted to foreign criminals and invaders, and they know that if such a bill stood on its own, it would be defeated. Studies have shown that mass legalisation could result in over 100 million uneducated, unskilled, disease-ridden immigrants pouring over our border in the next two decades, forever altering our country beyond recognition.

An increase of 6,000 National Guard troops or extra border patrol is an insult when five times that number are clearly needed, along with a physical wall and strict punishment for knowing employers of illegals. Illegals should be given six months during which to leave on their own, after which unlawful presence in the US should become punishable by permanent banishment. If more than half the illegals currently living in the US didn't make a run for the border in that six months, I'd eat my hat. Then they could truly get in the "back of the line" for citizenship -- since that line actually forms on the OTHER SIDE of the border.