The Senate just voted 82-15 to proceed with debate on the amnesty/immigration deform bill.  Every Democrat voted yes, laying waste to the notion that there are still moderate red state Democrats.  15 Republicans voted to stand with We the People against the La Raza foreign lobby/K Street juke box:

Barrasso, Boozman, Crapo, Cruz, Enzi, Grassley, Inhofe, Kirk, Lee, Risch, Roberts, Scott, Sessions, Shelby, Vitter

McCain, Murkowski, and Coburn were not present for the vote.  The former two would have voted for it anyway.  [Update: Coburn voted yes on the second procedural motion to proceed.]

The rest of the Republicans, led by Mitch McConnell, all voted to proceed with debate, thereby sealing the fate of the bill and ensuring that a phony cosmetic compromise is hatched to pass the bill and pressure the House.

We will hear a lot of statements about the need to proceed with debate in order to “strengthen” the bill.  It’s akin to advocating for debate on Obamacare so we can fix the beast.  This bill is beyond fixing, and even if there was a way to fix it, Democrats along with McConnell and Cornyn have made it clear that their idea of tweaking the bill is strengthening the enforcement after legalization.  Rubio actually plans to offer amendments to place provisions in the bill that he originally claimed were a part of the legislation to begin with (the Zuckerberg ads still tout that original speech).

We will hear the establishment say that the status quo is unacceptable.  Yes, the status quo of constant amnesty before enforcement is unacceptable.  But just because the status quo is bad doesn’t mean we should make it worse just for the purpose of passing “something.”  By that same logic, we should have passed Obamacare because there were problems with our current healthcare system.  The status quo of Obama promulgating cap and trade regulations by executive fiat is unacceptable, so we need to pass a compromise cap and trade bill to fix the problem.

Now that we have brought the amnesty-first supporters out of the shadows, we need to call the following members and ask them what part of enforcement first don’t they understand:

Remember, Alexander, McConnell, Cochran, Graham, and Cornyn are up for reelection.

As we noted yesterday, it is quite evident that Democrats have 60 votes to pass any amnesty bill.  They are aiming to work with McConnell and Cornyn to insert one or two shiny objects into the bill, so they can bring along another 15-20 Republicans into the fold.  This way they will have the GOP share in the blame of another failed amnesty, and place enormous pressure on the House to jump off the cliff instead of following the prudent enforcement-first approach of the House Judiciary Committee –  a position supported by the vast majority of the country.