Foxx's Anti-Illegal Alien Bill May Hurt Refugees of Religious Persecution

The Sensenbrenner bill, "The Real I.D. Act," to force illegal aliens to also drive illegally, gathered opponents from the "faith community" yesterday, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, and World Relief, a program of the National Association of Evangelicals. They are joined by Human Rights First and Amnesty International in opposing the Sensenbrenner bill because it "would hurt refugees fleeing religious persecution" and because it is being mainlined to passage, bypassing full committee hearings. (Why are the Republicans prepared to rush the bill through? "Sensenbrenner's proposals were among measures that stalled an intelligence overhaul bill last year. To move the bill, House leaders removed the measures and told Sensenbrenner he could piggyback his measures on the first 'must pass' legislation on the House floor this session. That's likely to be the Iraq and Afghanistan wars spending package.")

Madame Virginia Foxx signed onto the Sensenbrenner bill as one of 115 co-sponsors and proudly wrote an editorial in the Watauga Democrat about how she's protecting the 5th Congressional District from foreign terrorists. The Catholic Madame Foxx might want to check in with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. They have a very different "take" on the bill. So does the National Association of Evangelicals, since Madame Foxx often "passes" as a Baptist.

The religious groups listed above seem dubious about the claim that the Sensenbrenner bill will do much of anything to protect us from terrorists but seem pretty certain that the bill WILL protect the USA from such hair-raising threats to our freedom as "women fleeing persecution, sexual trafficking and children who have been abused ... for slave labor and other political refugees." The Republican zeal to limit freedoms will evidently sweep up at least some of "your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

None of whom gave Madame Foxx any campaign contributions, so there's an end of that.