Posted on 05/15/2006 1:48:28 PM PDT by Spiff
Real Reductions in Illegal Alien Population Must Be a Prerequisite to Any Other Immigration Policy Changes
May 15, 2006
Washington, DC— President Bush’s widely anticipated announcement that National Guard troops will be sent to patrol the border is a “welcome, but a baby step toward the type of comprehensive immigration enforcement strategy that the American public is demanding,” said Dan Stein, president of FAIR, in reaction to the President’s Monday night speech to the nation. “After five and half years of complete inaction on the part of this administration to control America’s illegal immigration crisis, we will need more than a photo opportunity for National Guardsmen at the border,” Stein said.
With American public opinion running overwhelmingly against President Bush’s proposal to grant amnesty for 12 million or more illegal aliens and create a massive new guest worker program, the White House is clearly attempting to establish some measure of credibility for its promise that it will enforce immigration laws in the future. FAIR sees the president’s decision to send National Guard troops to the border as a transparent and transitory gesture.
“We welcome this modest step toward enforcing our borders, but a real strategy to control illegal immigration to the United States and convince illegal aliens who are living here to leave, must have many more components to it,” said Stein. “There needs to be a real effort to enforce laws against employers who hire illegal aliens, an end to non-essential service and benefits to illegal aliens, and better coordination with state and local law enforcement agencies.”
“Immigration enforcement with demonstrable results must be a prerequisite to any other policy changes, not a media event designed to make the American public swallow an unpopular amnesty and guest worker program,” continued Stein. “After years of doing absolutely nothing to deal with this problem, the American public needs to see a real strategy implemented which results in illegal aliens getting discouraged and returning to their homelands in significant numbers.”
FAIR stressed that enforcement cannot be tied to amnesty for illegal aliens and a new guest worker program to satisfy the cheap labor lobby. “Amnesty is forever; immigration enforcement has been sporadic to nonexistent for too long for anyone to have confidence that the administration will carry through over the long haul. We have no reason to believe that when the television cameras and reporters leave, that the National Guard won’t be far behind them,” said Stein.
“If President Bush is serious about dealing with the illegal immigration crisis, he will get behind the House of Representatives’ enforcement bill, commit his administration to carrying out laws against illegal immigration, and drop his call for granting amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. If he does that, polls show that he will have the support of the American people behind him. If all he is planning to do is send a few weekend soldiers down to the border for a few months, the American public will see it for what it is: an elaborate and expensive photo op,” Stein concluded.
Mr. Bush was criticized by both Republicans and Democrats earlier this month for failing to add 2,000 agents to the Border Patrol, as set out in the intelligence overhaul legislation he signed in December.
The president's 2006 budget allows enough money to add only 210 agents for the U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico.
With the above do you still think President Bush will do anything to slow the invasion?
Oh, for crying out loud. People whine for years to have Bush put the military on the borders. He's (supposedly--we still haven't heard his address yet) doing it. And now people are complaining anyway!
Whine, cry, whine, cry the sky is falling some more - Yep, that's about all some are good for -
People gripe for the sake of it, which is why it's Bush's fault for everything...blah blah blah.
Before anything has even happened it's a "Photo-op", geeeeeshhhh.
At least on July 1 we may get a lot of the illegals OFF Medicaid and save taxpayers money:
http://www.cbpp.org/1-5-06health.htm
"The Deficit Reduction Act, which was signed by the President on February 8th, contains a provision that would require all citizens applying for Medicaid or renewing their coverage to produce a passport or birth certificate to prove they are U.S. citizens. There would be no exceptions for any Medicaid applicants or beneficiaries, not even individuals with severe physical or mental impairments such as Alzheimer’s disease"
Now do the same with welfare benefits!! No more Golden Goose beenfits for illegals.
ping
What gets me is how Bush reportedly "assured" Fox that this is only temporary.
Can someone tell me why the heck Fox would need to be assurded of ANYTHING? It's not his business. We could put 150,000 marines on the border, as long as it's on our side, it's none of his concern regardless of how many American dollars he wants his slaves to send back to Mexico.
It's only temporary, that is the problem.
It's window-dressing until he the president gets that guest worker amnesty he wants so badly.
Here is your illegal alien photo-op Mr. President. Jump right in sir.
I have this mental image of the time Clinton walked across the WH lawn with the military men with him -- for show.
I suspect tonight's speech will be comparable. I hope I am wrong. I doubt that I am.
Fox news has a banner saying President will send 5,000 troops to the border.
Is this really appropriate here? I realize that the President's behavior is frustrating. But this kind of stuff is not helpfu.
Being he is enabling them and not securing our borders, what would be your own answer to that question, a big group hug?
The Action Alert was received via email. I've tried to find the corresponding Action Alert on their website, but apparently it has only been sent via email and has not been placed on the website yet. I pointed to the main page for FAIR in the source URL.
In all of my years on Free Republic, I've never had a such a thread pulled for that reason. Here is the Action Alert as it was posted in the thread that was pulled:
Tonight at 8 pm EST the President of the United States will try, once again, to use rhetoric to secure our borders. It is a continued example of the administration's strategy of words— instead of deeds—when it comes to tough issues.
The President will address the nation from the Oval Office calling for the National Guard to be deployed to the nation's southern border. The plan to commit 5,000 National Guard troops along the border is a wool-over-the-eyes effort to resuscitate the unpopular Hagel-Martinez guest worker amnesty plan (which died in early April) in the Senate today. The President believes through this political stunt he can sound tough on security and the American people will reverse their overwhelming disapproval of his amnesty schemes.
His plan: use the already overtaxed National Guard to assist the Border Patrol, but not give them authority or responsibility for detentions or arrests of illegal crossers. This seems to be taking a direct cue from the successful Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. (whom the president called a "vigilante" group), in that they will simply provide "logistical" support.
This sudden push to "do everything… to secure the border" is "what the American people want," said the President's national security advisor Stephen Hadley. However, as the Senate continues to debate a massive guest worker amnesty program, the President has also indicated that his plan to deploy the National Guard is a token gesture to the conservatives of his party who have continued to oppose his scheme to bring in millions of foreign workers to take more American jobs and increase the burden on the middle class.
While his stunt seems to offer a more secure border, the President will continue to press for the Hagel-Martinez guest worker amnesty scheme; a true disaster in the making. Former Speaker of the House and architect of the GOP House takeover, Newt Gingrich admitted as much yesterday to Tim Russert on Meet the Press: "I voted in 1986 for the bill which in fact amnestied three — almost three million people. It said we're going to set up a temporary worker program, it said we're going to control the border, and it said we're going to enforce the law on, on employers. None of that happened. So now you are where we are today."
Yesterday, President Bush received a call from Mexican President Vicente Fox "concerned" about the proposed National Guard deployment. President Bush seemed to ease Fox's worries about securing our southern border as his office released a statement saying that Bush is "analyzing the administrative and logistical support of part of the National Guard, not the army, to help police the border." That statement alone uncovers the true purpose of this sudden move: political rhetoric to fool the American people.
While the President eases the worries of Mexican President Fox, the American people are still being threatened by not only a border that only looks to be more "secure", but also by the looming guest worker amnesty proposal set for debate today in the Senate. Please call your Senators to let them know you are NOT fooled by this "political stunt" and that anything less than enforcement-only legislation is NOT acceptable to the majority of Americans. It is time our elected officials listen to their bosses—the American people.
The plan hasn't even been announced yet. How do you know?
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