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Bush never said he wanted to make 3 million illegals - legal. I'll give you $100 if you can come up with a direct quote of him saying this !

Bush never said he wanted to make 3 million illegals - legal. I'll give you $100 if you can come up with a direct quote of him saying this!

Your are right, he never said it himself. He had the White House staff leak it to the media, for him, and when he found out that it was unpopulare, he denied that the rumors came from his staff.

Then he came up with his Guest Worker program. Unfourtunatly, most people don't know that this program will lead to residency and then Citizenship.

Looking, looking. He did say it, mostly the issue was raised by "trial balloons" in early July 2001. Here's a July 20 article I found on the net:

" The Bush administration's announcement earlier this week that it is considering a plan to "regularize" the status of 3 million undocumented Mexicans living in the United States has already provoked a big debate, but I wouldn't be surprised if the U.S. action eventually materializes.

The White House says it has temporarily discarded the idea of an automatic amnesty, which conservative Republicans say would amount to rewarding illegal immigration. But the fact that Bush is considering a multistage process to confer legal status to Mexican undocumented workers could well open the doors to their citizenship.

The wisdom among U.S. political strategists is that Bush, who got only 35 percent of the Hispanic vote in the 2000 election, will need at least 40 percent of the Hispanic vote if he runs for re-election in 2004. Courting the Mexican vote would be a top priority for him, because Mexican-Americans are by far the largest U.S. Hispanic group. Mexican-Americans vote overwhelmingly Democratic, because they associate Republicans with anti-migrant policies such as those championed by former California Gov. Pete Wilson. "

What happened is that Bush floated the first idea and their was quite a reaction. Then he backpedaled to some "guest-worker" or other legalization hocus-pocus, then Democrats raised the issue why only Mexicans? then Bush admin. types said they would consider that too, then 911 happened, the Vicente Fox quickly came back to Washington to see if the deal was going on, then it was put aside, and now Bush is talking about reviving in a few months time.

Here's a July 15, 2001 thread relating to the subject:

Bush Aides Weigh Legalizing Status of Mexicans in U.S. (Amnesty Days are Here Again!)

Here's a July 15, 2001 thread relating to the subject:

Bush Aides Weigh Legalizing Status of Mexicans in U.S. (Amnesty Days are Here Again!)