What have our two U.S. Senators Bill Nelson (Democrat) and Mel Martinez (Republican) been doing for us recently? Both senators have strongly stated that they are in favor of securing our U.S. Borders. This makes a terrific sound-byte but what are they doing about it?
Both Senators recently voted in favor of Senate Bill 2611 that, among other things, requires Federal, State and local government to consult with Mexico before we build one single foot of fencing or any related border security structure along our southern United States border. In fact, Senator Martinez is the proud co-sponsor of Senate Bill 2611.
A few weeks later, both Senator Nelson and Senator Martinez voted against the appropriation of an additional $1,829,400,000 (S. Amdt. 4659), to construct double-layered fencing and vehicle barriers along our southwest borders. Senator Martinez went on to also vote against (S. Amdt. 4660) the appropriation of an additional $85,670,000 to enable Homeland Security to hire 800 additional full time investigators to investigate immigration law violations. Right now, I believe that we have about 100 federal investigators to investigate corporations who hire illegal aliens.
I called Senator Nelson's office and Senator Martinez's offices to ask again about their positions on securing our borders. Their friendly staff assured me that each Senator is definitely in favor of securing our U.S. borders. I then asked why the Senators voted the way they did on each of these border security bills. Both Senator's friendly staff members told me that they could not give me a Senator-authorized statement but did ask me if I would like to leave a message for the Senator. I become a little more insistent in wanting an answer on why each of my Senators voted as they did, stating that I was a Florida tax paying, voting citizen. I was transferred to the voice mail of each Senator's immigration coordinator with the assurance that I would be called back. That was over a week ago. I am still waiting to get a call back from either one.
I will be keeping this in mind when I walk into the voting booth.
If you would like to see more of what our U.S. Senators and U.S. Congressmen are doing for (or to) us - go to www.thomas.gov, scroll down to the bottom of the page and under "Other Legislative Activity," click on "Roll Call Votes."