Flashback: McRINO says “complete the danged fence.”
The Senate Tuesday defeated two amendments aimed at strengthening border security in the Gang of Eight immigration reform bill, including a provision that would have required a double-layer fence on the U.S.-Mexico border.
The back-to-back defeat of the two provisions was a blow to critics of the immigration reform measure who say it lacks meaningful border security provisions.
Only 39 senators voted for an amendment authored by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., that would have mandated the completion of the fence along a 750-mile strip that divides the United States from Mexico before any of the nation’s estimated 11 million illegal immigrants could obtain a green card.
The Senate also voted 58-36 to kill a provision offered by Sen. David Vitter, R-La., that would have required that a biometric visa system be implemented before illegal immigrants can obtain legal status.
Thune’s provision would have required completion of at least half the length of the fence before illegal immigrants could obtain legal status. […]
All four GOP members of the gang — Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake, both of Arizona, Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, and Marco Rubio, of Florida — voted against the fence and visa amendments.
“Despite promising enforcement first, the Gang of Eight led the opposition,” Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., a leading critic of the immigration reform bill, said after the vote.