Congress's week-long Memorial Day recess was expected to leave the bill in tatters. But with a week of action set to begin today, the legislation's champions say they believe that the voices of opposition, especially from conservatives, represent a small segment of public opinion.

They could not be more mistaken. Apparently, they haven't learned anything.

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), who led negotiations on the bill for his party, said the flood of angry calls and protests that greeted the deal two weeks ago has since receded every day.

We attribute that to a growing sense that this bill is dead on arrival. If this bill gets anywhere close to actual passage, Mr. Kyl will see a backlash unlike anything he has yet contemplated.

"I just know that we've got a tough week ahead of us," Sen. Jon Kyl said. (Brendan Smialowski - Bloomberg News) You have no idea.

The Hurdles to Come

The bipartisan coalition that forged the Senate compromise on immigration legislation has held together to stave off amendments, from liberals and conservatives, that could upset the delicate deal. But this week the group faces the biggest challenges to its cohesion. Here are some of the pending...

On two key elements of the immigration bill before the Senate -- a plan to allow illegal immigrants to apply for legal status and an expansion of the guest worker program -- Americans are largely divided, with narrow majorities in favor of the new provisions.

"You just have to recognize you will get 300 calls, you'll get conflicts at town hall meetings -- all of them negative," said Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who consulted with Kyl and hopes to carry a similar deal through the House in July. "The last few days have really turned things around."

Translation: "You need to understand that we really don't give a damn about what our constituents feel anyway."

Public opinion polls seem to support Kyl's contention that Americans are far more open to the deal than the voices of opposition would indicate.

No they don't. Not when the polls are done honestly. Rasmussen Reports (America's most accurate pollster) produced a poll showing only 26% of Americans approve this crapola bill.

In a Washington Post-ABC News poll released today, 52 percent of Americans said they would support a program giving illegal immigrants the right to stay and work in the United States if they pay a fine and meet other requirements.

This is a push poll. It is a poll designed to gain a certain result. The key to it is in the phrase "meet other requirements". Since the poll doesn't define "meet other requirements", (which could include anything from writing I'm sorry I came to America illegally, to learning English to going back to their Country of origin and getting back in line), what the poll is really asking is "Do you favor excluding Illegal Immigrants that are caught from ever having the opportunity to become American citizens"?

Opposition to that proposal was 44 percent.

In other words, a full 44% of Americans (more than 2 out of 5) believe that once you have come to America illegally, you do not deserve the chance to be a U.S. Citizen ever, under any circumstances.

So, to pass any form of a path to citizenship, lawmakers will have to create a scenario that meets with the approval of 89% of the remainder of Americans to even have a bill they can say half of America supports.

Good luck.

So far, the dozen senators who cut the deal have been able to hold their compromise together. They have beaten back amendments that the group deemed to be coalition-killers, such as one to strike the bill's temporary-worker program and another to remove its provisions to legalize the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.

This week's amendments are more subtle, and therefore, more threatening to the coalition.
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) will push to make the Department of Homeland Security consider more of the family-based immigration applications that have already been filed, adding 833,000 immigrants. Kyl said he will withdraw his support for the bill if the amendment passes.
He also said he will walk away if Menendez and Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) win passage of an amendment that would more than double the number of green cards available under the bill for the parents of U.S. citizens. Kyl said conservatives believe today's family unification system is being misused by illegal immigrants, whose U.S.-born children are citizens.

You see a pattern here? The Liberals will always work towards Nationalizing more illegals, bringing in more illegals because they see that as more votes. Dr. Phil always said that to stop a behavior, you must remove the reward for that behavior. In this case, it must be made harder, not easier to vote. If you can't prove citizenship, you don't vote. If you can't speak english, you don't vote.

I'll be called a Xenophobe for this but I don't care. As long as we keep having voters who are ignorant, uneducated, illegal and non-productive, we will keep electing Liberal Democrats. The problem with our voying system now is that we have morons who cant speak english or name the Vice-President, voting.

Such amendments will be difficult to resist for the compromise's chief Democratic architect, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.),

.....that says enough about this bill, right there.

who helped create the family unification system in 1965 and whom conservatives are now counting on to help dismantle it.

Republicans in the coalition will be expected to oppose amendments that put them in equally difficult positions. One, sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), would expand the list of crimes making illegal immigrants ineligible for legalization. Cornyn has emphasized infractions such as gang activity and "aggravated felonies."

and Republicans will be expected to oppose that!? That is just common sense stuff there. Who could be opposed to that!?

What in the world has happened to this once great party?

Democrats say the list would virtually wipe out the legalization program by barring undocumented workers who ignored deportation orders, overstayed their visas or otherwise evaded immigration authorities.

um......duh!

What is the problem with that? You shouldn't commit the crime if you can't face the consequences.

In addition, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) would like to prohibit illegal immigrants who are legalized under the law from obtaining the earned-income tax credit to bolster low-income work.