Senators Harry Reid (D-NV) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) introduced the ‘Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007’ (S. 1639) on Monday. Yet unless Congress secretly passed the ‘Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007’ and President Bush secretly signed it into law, the new immigration bill cites the authority of a statute that does not exist:

Sec. 302(c)(1)(B) DOCUMENTS ESTABLISHING BOTH EMPLOYMENT AUTHORIZATION AND IDENTITY- A document described in this subparagraph is an individual’s —

`(i) United States passport, or passport card issued pursuant to the Secretary of State’s authority under 22 U.S.C. 211a;

`(ii) permanent resident card or other document issued by the Secretary or Secretary of State to aliens authorized to work in the United States, if the document–

`(I) contains a photograph of the individual, biometric data, such as fingerprints, or such other personal identifying information relating to the individual as the Secretary finds, by regulation, sufficient for the purposes of this subsection;

`(II) is evidence of authorization for employment in the United States; and

`(III) contains security features to make it resistant to tampering, counterfeiting, and fraudulent use; or

`(iii) a temporary interim benefits card valid under section 218C(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended by section 602 of the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 [emphasis added mine], bearing a photograph and an expiration date, and issued by the Secretary to aliens applying for temporary worker status under the Z-visa.

To belabor the point, the ‘Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007’ did not see a final vote in the Senate as a cloture motion, on June 7, 2007, failed to gain the necessary 60 votes.

If you are emailing or faxing Senators, I suggest that you copy and paste the text of this post in with what you send them.