(h/t Drudge)

This actually sounds like genuine progress to me, but I haven't had time to read it all yet. Any input?

The Senate voted to build 370 miles of triple-layered fencing along the Mexican border Wednesday and clashed over citizenship for millions of men and women who live in the United States illegally.

Amid increasingly emotional debate over election-year immigration legislation, senators voted 83-16 to add fencing and 500 miles of vehicle barriers along the southern border. It marked the first significant victory in two days for conservatives seeking to place their stamp on the contentious measure.

I'm not clear on what these vehicle barriers are yet...

Construction of the barrier would send "a signal that open-border days are over. ... Good fences make good neighbors, fences don't make bad neighbors," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. He said border areas where barriers already exist have experienced economic improvement and reduced crime.

"What we have here has become a symbol for the right wing in American politics," countered Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. He said if the proposal passed, "our relationship with Mexico would come down to a barrier between our two countries."

I'm still not clear why Durbin should be in office or allowed to speak ever after comparing Gitmo troops to Nazis, etc. That's all I think of anytime I see his name. He's a disgrace, and he should be deported (but if he sneaks back quick enough he could gain citizenship under the new amnesty plan).

Read on for more bloviating from people on all sides, and GOPers eatting their own.

I haven't commented much on all the latest immigration developments for a couple reasons. For starters there has just been a ton of other news going on at the same time, and I know the rest of the blogosphere is saturated by border/immigration talk and I guess I'd rather not just get lost in the sea of it all. In addition to the fact that I've been covering all the other stuff going on, the immigration news is just coming in rapid fire and to try to get a post up, I know I'd be leaving out a lot of things I'd like to say about it (like I am about to here).

Anyway, here's my thing. I think we need a fence, similar to what the Minutemen have designed, running down almost all of the border. I think if we could do this, there wouldn't be a need for a bunch more guards. That is why I'm cautiously optimistic about this development, until someone tells me that I'm missing something and this doens't mean anything and I just got to excited when I saw the Drudge siren going off.

As for the President, yes I'm angry with his weak handling of the immigration issue. But I'm a supporter of most of his policies, and we're obviously a lot better than if a Democrat was in office in many different areas. And yes the border is one of the, if not the most important issue facing us. But I feel like he's kind of stuck.

This is sort of a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. If the President and GOP gets really tough on the border, what will happen? Well first the Senate Democrats will do the only thing they seem to know how to do... Rant and rave, filibuster and obstruct. Nothing will get done, the delay will go from weeks, to months, to years.

Even if somehow we did get a tough plan pushed through, what would happene next? If it hadn't already, the Dems would pull the race card. It would be all about those racist Republicans trying to keep latinos out. It would be, as it always is, all about the votes for Democrats. We saw the signs at the Dallas illegal rally with reminders to vote "Democrat in 2006" above a picture of Mexico and Texas fused together. We also saw Hillary and Kennedy become stars of the shows at a couple different rallies.

Seeing as how hispanics are the largest minority, and not far off from being a majority in this country, the libs, with the help of their trusty media, would stir all of these people up to vote Democrat if Republicans got tough. GOP would lose power, and Dems would just reverse any good they had done. Again, damned if they do, damned if they don't.

My point is that I'm a little disturbed by all the giving up on the President I've been seeing from conservative bloggers. Do you really think not showing up on election day is going to make things better?! Yes this is arguably the most important issue, but do you really want the Democrats in charge? They aren't going to be any better, and in fact we know they'll be worse. Let's just calm down the emotion, and think realisitically about what not voting could mean for the country. I'm just scared that there's this movement to "send a message", but when the dust settles it won't matter, because we'll have Democrats taking back at least one house.

Back to my personal opinion quickly... I'm absolutely for enforcement first. I'm a little less concerned about the workers who are already here, as I am about the security issue of the open border. This goes back to why I want the fence. As I said before, perhaps there could be some type of extreme tax hike on illegals after cracking down on employers and making them have records of employees, and make them pay taxes. They would pay these for their entire lives, not ever be able to collect social security, and get some type of "worker" status, and maybe after 10 years, if they can speak english and have clean records, they could apply for citizenship. Just rough, off the cuff idea that could be tweeked in all directions.