Bush will win on Immigration to save the Republican Party.

[Pukin Dog]

Just a little dose of reality for some of you going nuts over the Immigration issue, because there is NO chance that you will win on the border enforcement issue. No chance whatsoever. Only after a migrant worker program passes, making most of these illegal aliens legal, is there any chance at all to have meaningful border enforcement.

Bush is not running for office anymore, but the Republican Congress is in need of a big victory in November. This issue will kill our chances to maintain the majority, and knowing that, Bush will likely veto any bill making illegal immigration a felony, if that bill does not include the migrant worker program (call it amnesty if you want) needed to hold onto Business and Hispanic support for the Republican Party.

The Illegal Immigration Genie is out of the bottle, folks. You can’t stuff her back in without losing the House and/or Senate in November. Pragmatic minds will rule in the end, and that is a bitter pill you best swallow now.

FReepers can’t will elections for the Republican Party, but we sure can go a long way towards losing them, if we can’t put our common sense ahead of our passions on this issue. I live in San Diego County, and I see the problems with illegal immigration on a daily basis.

Whether you like it or not, much of the commerce of this country does depend on these folks to do jobs that Americans won’t do for the prevailing wage.

So, you have a choice, you can demand the border enforcement bills on their own, or you can swallow hard and consider everything you will lose if we turn off 10-15% of the electorate, in addition to the business community that depends on these workers. Yeah, they broke the law, and so do the people who hire them.

So what?

Yeah, I said it, SO WHAT? The time to be worried about that was when there were REAL Republican majorities in the Border States. It is too late now. This is a problem that cannot be solved, but only managed.

It is possible to be right and stupid at the same time. Pete Wilson tried this a few years ago, got all kinds of support for it. It passed, and Pete Wilson is gone. Then a judge overturned it anyway. That is exactly what you can expect to happen with these current bills as well. Some judge will put an injunction on enforcement, but by the time that happens, we will be knee-deep into impeachment proceeding under a Democrat Congress.

Bush won’t let that happen, neither will smarter members of the Senate and House. You won’t win, you can’t win, but you can shoot yourself and the Republican party in the head (even if you are not a member) by pursuing a program that does not include amnesty or whatever you want to call it.

We lost this one.

Get over it. There are bigger battles ahead.

[Truth29]

Ditto - what you said. Bush will have only himself to blame if the GOP loses the House in November because of his open borders/guest worker/amnesty by whatever name proposals and spends his last two years under investigation and probably impeached. Speaker Pelosi, Chairman Rangel, and the rest will say Muchas Gracias.

[Servant of the 9]

.....there is NO chance that you will win on the border enforcement issue. No chance whatsoever. Only after a migrant worker program passes, making most of these illegal aliens legal, is there any chance at all to have meaningful border enforcement.

Puke, it's amazing how wrong you can be.
This is not the first time round this particular issue for us grownups. We did it most recently in the Reagan Administration.
Once a guest worker program or amnesty is set up, why poof say the politicians, there is no illegal alien problem anymore, so why spend money on border security. Thus we start round the circle again. That is why we know better than to accept this 'solution' again.

On the other hand, once the borders are secured then almost everyone can accept almost any solution to the problem of the current illegal aliens, because with the border sealed it's a one time thing. And once illegal immigration is stopped, and the status of illegals now here regularized, the extent of the true need for guest workers will become evident and a program to supply and control them can be knocked to gether in weeks.

SO9

[CowboyJay]

"It's mostly small businesses who hire the illegals. Faced with not surviving in business due to onerous garbage laws, they hire Mexicans who are eager for the work."

Horse-hockey! The CRIMINALS who employ ILLEGAL aliens do so to gain competitive advantage over those who abide by the laws of our country, not out of any threat that they will go under if they follow the rules.

[CowboyJay]

"how do you propose getting rid of 20 million people????"

Crack down on their CRIMINAL bosses and cut off social services. They will seof-deport in no time flat.

[Little Ray]

Just make 'em miserable and they'll self deport - no services, no medication, no welfare, no congregatin for day labor, etc.

[Siena Dreaming]

I guess you're ok with the thousands of small businesses DRIVEN out of business over the last ten years

No, what I'm OK with is a "level playing field" where Gov't decreases demands on what an employer must offer workers.

[Politicalmom]

Then we send in the miltary. They are not Americans.

[Bernard Marx]

I think your headline is dead wrong. He may 'win' but I think he's split the Republican Party irreparably. Many of us no longer believe Republicans represent the interests of legal American citizens -- or the law. Pragmatism has its limits and I've reached mine. It no longer matters which political party runs things, they're both taking the rightful citizens this country to ruin. I think the professional political class has pissed America away. There are no longer any useful political alternatives that I can see.

[texastoo]

We can forget trying to enforce existing laws after 30 years of not even attempting to enforce them.

This is my solution. The government continually moves the age of social security recipients back with success as no one argues.You may not like this but it has happened and the government will continue to cut the elderly if possible.

My solution is similar. Take the WIC program for instance. There is no reason to have a program from birth to age 5. Cut this back to one year of aid. Cut food stamps and replace at least half with commodities as too many illegals are selling food stamps. I know this for a fact.

We cut bankruptcies for millions of Americans so certainly we should be able to cut welfare for illegals,.

[samcgwire]

"I just want folks to consider the consequences. If they think that the losses incurred by an all-out fight to take back the country are justified, so be it.

I just wanted to inject that little bit in there. If war is what we want, well, let's do it and get it over with.

Going into a battle in which the LOSS OF YOUR LIFE is a possibility needs careful consideration."

What are we? Americans or Frenchies? Lots of my family's blood has been spilled the last 150+ years, and I'll be damned if it was all for naught.

[taxed2death]

I never was against a guest worker plan. I just think it makes sense to secure our borders FIRST before we (RINO's GWB and company) babble on about a Shamnesty program.


I'm gonna LAUGH when all these strawberry picker places and restaurants have to play LEGALLY and FAIR and pay SS and FICA to their "workers".....
All these scumbag employers who've been paying their illegals "off the books" will soon lose their advantage against LEGIT business owners. You'll see some REAL cryin' then as these dirt bags realize how damned hard it is to compete on an even playing field.

I do NOT however see a need for a guest worker plan to necessarily lead to citizenship.

The two do not necessarily have to be linked.

I say... you want a guest worker program? No problemo. First offense for hiring an illegal after it is implemented is a mandatory $25,000.00 fine. Second offense is $100,000.00 fine. Third offense is forfeiture of the business and mandatory 5 years in jail. Let's see how the lobbies REALLY like that....LOL

[Bikers4Bush]

So we're supposed to be held hostage by criminal elements?

I think not. Better to have LA burn now than the rest of the country later.

[Froufrou]

Thanks. I realize there's no way to haul 11M illegals out of here. And the fence could take years. There has to be a way to catalog them. INS needs major revamping, the sooner the better!

[Types_with_Fist]

I just happen to understand the consequences of minimum wage laws and other gross business regulation and the havoc these cause.

Okay. You sounded like others here who have admitted to doing so. I understand what regulation and minimum wage laws can do to a business. What I don't understand is why a successful business person who does not break the law by hiring illegal aliens advocates this for others. I know I don't understand business very well. But you're talking about violating the law and making it sound acceptable and okee-dokey.

[samcgwire]

Oh, gee, please let me know when I can have my own opinion.

Free Republic has been around a decade or less, while I've been able to form my own opinions and insights for several decades.

[Final Authority]

Respecting 71, I couldn't have said that any better myself.

I believe he has some very good and some very bad advisors. Even Rush today, since his blunder over the UAE ports deal in support of GWB, sees the light and understands that anything that isn't to enforce the rule of law is amnesty by another name, will ruin GWB and the GOP. GWB can't heel drag anymore on this issue and it won't just go away, especially before a very important mid-term congressional election.

[Siena Dreaming]

Minimum wage is exhorbitant?

I said "other exorbitant regulation"....health care is an exorbitant cost, for example.

Are you saying that Government demands on what employers must provide is not egrarious? A decrease in Gov't regulation is of optimal benefit.

When you incrase regulation, things go bad. That's what's going on here.