Posted on 12/13/2003 5:24:56 AM PST by chicagolady
The White House yesterday said a new immigration review is under way that could lead to amnesty for millions of illegal aliens living and working in the United States. Confirmation of the review came during a White House briefing, just two days after Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said during a town hall meeting in Miami that the government had to "afford some kind of legal status" to the 8 million to 12 million illegal aliens in the country. "We've taken steps to improve border security — significant steps, I might add; have made great progress there. We've taken steps to improve the immigration infrastructure," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. "Those are some foundations for moving forward on a more orderly, safe and humane migration policy. "And this is a matter that really is under review at this point. We continue to look at it," Mr. McClellan said. Mr. Ridge, during a question-and-answer period after his Miami speech, said he would not support granting citizenship to illegal aliens now in the country "because they violated the law to get here," but the government needed to "determine how you can legalize their presence" and then institute an immigration enforcement policy to prevent future illegal entries. His comments drew harsh criticism from some congressional sources and immigration opponents. Rep. Tom Tancredo, Colorado Republican and chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, said Mr. Ridge should resign if he is unable or unwilling to enforce existing immigration laws. He said the secretary's comments would "open a floodgate" of illegal aliens "trying to sneak into the United States in order to be first in line for amnesty." Dan Stein, executive director of the Federation of American Immigration Reform (FAIR), questioned what security interests of the United States were being served "by granting legal status to people whose identities cannot be confirmed and who already have shown an unwillingness to observe U.S. law? "The law has to be respected before you grandfather in the very people who disrespected it," he said. Various amnesty bills are pending in Congress, although none has been scheduled for debate or a vote. Congress approved an amnesty program in 1986, granting legal status to 2.7 million illegal aliens then in the country. The program contained increased enforcement and penalty policies aimed at ending illegal immigration, although the illegal alien population in the United States today is more than twice the total in 1986. Mr. McClellan said Mr. Bush "has always been a strong believer that America should be a welcoming society. We are, after all, a nation of immigrants, as he often points out." He said discussions with Mexico on a new amnesty proposal were ongoing prior to the September 11 attacks, but were halted. Mr. Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox had agreed to consider granting permanent residency, or green cards, to as many as 3 million Mexicans living illegally in the United States. Mr. McClellan also said that although some people had interpreted Mr. Ridge's comments as "some broad amnesty discussion," it was not that at all. "He's very involved in, obviously, overseeing border security and immigration matters, now under the new Department of Homeland Security," he said. "And I think he's been looking at the issue of the large number of illegal immigrants we do have in the country and looking at those that could be threats and those that are here for other reasons. "And so, he's just talking about the realities that we are facing now," he said. Asa Hutchinson, Homeland Security's undersecretary for border and transportation security, also defended Mr. Ridge's comments, saying they simply reflected ongoing debate in Congress over the immigration issue. "Secretary Ridge addressed it very honestly yesterday, engaged in that debate, but clearly this administration has not taken a firm policy position on that and the debate continues," Mr. Hutchinson said.
Grave times indeed. Too bad most people don't know they are being buried.
From within.
...The president has also announced an effort to pursue a free trade agreement with the nations of Central America. Success here will further strengthen our economic ties with those countries, and reinforce the great economic and political progress they've made over the last decade. Free trade with Central America will also move us toward an even broader aim -- a Free Trade Area of the Americas, up and running by January of 2005. The president is strongly committed to this goal, and all of our trade efforts are pointed in this direction....
I guess the thinking is if they first remove the perception of a Nation's border then the Nation ceases to exist.
The speed at which they destroy middle-class America. The Repub's are just a tad slower than the demoRats.
Ahhh... so it's "snippy" to confront conservatives who consider voting for a socialist like Nader? The Green Party platform advocates legalization of "undocumented workers", as they call it. You are, of course, free to assume that they would be so much stricter about the requirements than the GOP would be. BTW, are you aware that the Green Party is openly socialist across the world and are just careful not to appear blatantly so in the U.S.? About Lieberman, are you honestly saying you believe he would be more conservative than George W. Bush?
Surprise for you, I do know his positions... he not only fully supports amnesty, he's campaigning on it.
REFORMING IMMIGRATION
Joe Lieberman has an immigration reform agenda that would create a new earned legalization status, strengthen family reunification, protect the rights of undocumented immigrants, and create an American Dream Fund to help all immigrants learn English. He would also create a work visa program and end the deadlock on alternative ID cards.
He's also campaigning on giving tax "rebates" to those 30 million who didn't get one under Bush (because they don't pay taxes to begin with.) And he is campaigning on universal health care. If you are considering placing your vote for him, perhaps you may wish to become familiar with the rest of his platform, also? www.joe2004.com
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