Immigration Reform Advocates Criticize White House Proposal

Townhall.com ^ | December 24th, 2003 | Jeff Johnson

[Sabertooth]

Immigration Reform Advocates Criticize White House Proposal

(CNSNews.com) - Advocates for tougher enforcement of U.S. Immigration laws say the White House has put "a lump of coal in the stockings of American workers" with a Christmas Eve proposal to allow more foreign workers to enter the country and amnesty for some workers who have already entered illegally.

Activists working with the administration told the Washington Post Wednesday that the president is working on a strategy that would let foreign citizens enter the U.S. legally, with few restrictions, if they have a job waiting for them. The newspaper's sources said the White House also wants to find some way to grant amnesty to at least some of the nine to 11 million illegal aliens currently in the U.S.

Dan Stein, executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, scoffed at the proposal.

"This Christmas Eve announcement amounts to a lump of coal in the stockings of American workers," Stein said, "while illegal aliens and their employers find expensive gifts, tied up with fancy ribbons and bows, waiting for them in the new year."

The Bush proposal would reportedly allow employers to advertise jobs on a taxpayer sponsored website. The jobs would first be made available to U.S. citizens but, if there were no takers, could then be opened up to citizens of other countries. The plan would also allow many, if not most, of the nine to 11 million illegal immigrants currently living in the U.S. to be "reclassified" as "guest workers."

"The White House diligently avoided using the 'A' word in its announcement," Stein said. "But no matter how much Karl Rove wishes to torture the English language, a program that rewards millions upon millions of people who have cheated to get into this country, who have cheated by working off-the-books and avoided paying taxes, and who have cheated by using billions of dollars in public services ... is still an amnesty."

Bush tried to avert such criticism at a Dec. 16 press conference in which he teased the proposal.

"We need to have an immigration policy that helps match any willing employer with any willing employee," Bush said, quickly adding, "This administration is firmly against blanket amnesty."

The leak of Bush's plan to reporters came two weeks after Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said current immigration law, which mandates that illegal aliens return to their home countries to apply for legal status in the U.S. is "not workable."

"The bottom line is, as a country we have to come to grips with the presence of 8 to 12 million illegals, afford them some kind of legal status some way," Ridge told those attending a town hall meeting in Miami Dec. 10. "But also as a country [we have to] decide what our immigration policy is and then enforce it."

Phil Kent, executive director of the American Immigration Control Foundation, said the former Pennsylvania governor should resign his position.

"Ridge is clearly incapable of overseeing homeland security," Kent said. "Aside from dynamiting the rule of law by rewarding lawbreakers, how would security interests be served by simply granting legal status to foreigners whose identities and criminal histories can't be verified?

"Besides, this would only serve as a magnet for more illegal immigration," Kent predicted, "as the foolish congressional amnesties of 1986 and 1990 underscore."

Stein warned that the Bush proposal would have a serious economic impact on American citizens and immigrants who have entered the country and obtained permission to work legally.

"In addition to legalizing millions of illegal aliens and countless additional family members, the 'guest worker' provision of this proposal will sound the death knell of the American middle class," Stein predicted. "Employers will never again have to compete for workers by offering better pay or benefits. They will simply have to look across the border, or across the ocean to find an unlimited supply of workers willing to accept whatever they are willing to pay.

"Upward mobility, for most American workers, will become something they study about in history class," he concluded.

Stein said the White House wants to "reward illegal immigrants and punish American workers," when it should be backing Republican proposals to "protect American workers and send a signal to illegal aliens and their employers that U.S. immigration laws have some meaning.

"There are several critical pieces of legislation that would enhance our immigration enforcement capability, improve our antiquated documentation system, and protect American workers, all introduced by congressional Republicans that the Administration should be championing instead of capitulating to the illegal immigration lobby," Stein said.

[Sabertooth]

The Bush proposal would reportedly allow employers to advertise jobs on a taxpayer sponsored website. The jobs would first be made available to U.S. citizens but, if there were no takers, could then be opened up to citizens of other countries. The plan would also allow many, if not most, of the nine to 11 million illegal immigrants currently living in the U.S. to be "reclassified" as "guest workers."

"The White House diligently avoided using the 'A' word in its announcement," Stein said. "But no matter how much Karl Rove wishes to torture the English language, a program that rewards millions upon millions of people who have cheated to get into this country, who have cheated by working off-the-books and avoided paying taxes, and who have cheated by using billions of dollars in public services ... is still an amnesty."

[Sabertooth]

The leak of Bush's plan to reporters came two weeks after Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said current immigration law, which mandates that illegal aliens return to their home countries to apply for legal status in the U.S. is "not workable."

"The bottom line is, as a country we have to come to grips with the presence of 8 to 12 million illegals, afford them some kind of legal status some way," Ridge told those attending a town hall meeting in Miami Dec. 10. "But also as a country [we have to] decide what our immigration policy is and then enforce it."

[Reaganwuzthebest]

Time to start blasting Congress with our displeasure and disgust over such a proposal. As anyone who's paying attention knows, the H1-b scam displaced thousands of tech workers, and a program like this would extend that sellout to almost every industry in the country.

Lump of coal?? That's putting it mildly.

[Zipporah]

"White House has put "a lump of coal in the stockings of American workers""

Make sense of the UAW etc. supporting this ..

[DumpsterDiver]

Feliz Navidad to you, too! :)

(Bush is really getting on my last nerve.)

[NetValue]

"The bottom line is, as a country we have to come to grips with the presence of 8 to 12 million illegals, afford them some kind of legal status some way"

Legal Status: Criminal Fugitive Tax Evader, and VOTER.

[kimoajax]

I am just waiting for someone to propose that U.S. Citizenships be put up for sale...sort of like the Romans in ancient times used to do. After all, it makes far more sense to me than allowing a political party to simply give them away in exchage for hoped for votes.

[stopem]

Can I ask a question? How can a non-citizen, illegal alien from another country VOTE?
What am I missing?
Otherwise what would be the benefit to this administration to do this dastardly deed?
I still support President Bush but gosh we sure need some answers.

[Who dat?]

"But also as a country [we have to] decide what our immigration policy is and then enforce it."

Yes, and it is what it is. Now enforce it. Don't refine it or reformulate it or restructure it - just enforce it.

See how simple?

Problem solver – I’ve added that to my resume.

[Area51]

It looks like Jorge Delano Bush learned much from the Clintlers sleaze machine.

Announcing this on Christmas Eve is Disgusting. I hope he gets the political shit beat out of him by the Press, the Conservatives AND the Democrats running for public office.

It is well earned. He has been a miserable failure on Immigrant/Border issues.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Well, I'm still enjoying Saddam's capture. :-*

[kaktuskid]

Of course the Rats want every Juan Dick and Geraldo free entry into this country!

[Victoria Delsoul]

Oops, I forgot…

[Pubbie]

The House GOP isn't going to pass it.

Remember (Per the WP Article), there are TWO parts to this plan:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25882-2003Dec23.html

1: Let in more Legal Temporary workers.

2: Give some sort of "Legal Status" to an undetermined number of Illegal Immigrants (Probably less than the 500,000 in the McCain/Kolbe plan.)

In the WP article it said that the White House was less enthusiastic about the chances of the second part of this proposal (The most worrying part):

"The sources said White House officials were more skeptical about this idea than about the temporary-worker program, but they concluded that they needed a response to the large population of undocumented workers for the plan to be credible and for Bush to get credit from Hispanic voters."

It also said the first part of the plan is going to be a very tough sell because Congressmen are worried about letting in workers to take jobs Americans might want:

"A House GOP leadership aide, who insisted on anonymity, said the leaders are willing to work with Bush but think it will be a hard sell for rank-and-file members who are concerned that the plan could take jobs away from constituents. "The economic piece of it is now much more of a problem than your traditional xenophobia-type objections," the aide said."

And furthermore it's not clear Bush will try to pass anything next year - he might just outline general proposals without sending to anything to Congress:

"The Republican officials said that rather than proposing specific legislation, Bush may issue broad principles that would become part of what campaign officials call the "compassion agenda."

[texastoo]

I think it is ROTTON of Bush to announce this on Christmas Eve.

[MJY1288]

First off, there is no Bush proposal, If you read yesterday's Washington Post article that this article refers to, you will see that no white house official is quoted, just an annamed source saying that they heard from lobbyist in Washington that this is what Bush is proposing.

I understand that GWB has been less than clear on what his immigration policy details are, but THERE IS NO WHITE HOUSE PROPOSAL as of yet.

As you will soon see, My friend Sabertooth will post a laundry list of columns from pundits, but there is no Bush Proposal, just speculation of what might be in his proposal. I am 100% against any kind of amnesty for those who broke the law, and I will send my letters to the White House and my Represenatives in Congress expressing my objections to any such proposal. So I agree with Sabertooth and all the others against rewarding criminals, but I refuse to get my knickers in a twist over speculation, I'll wait till Bush announces his proposal to Congress and react to it then. All this knashing of teeth before any such proposal is even on the table for review is IMHO a complete waste of emotion

[MJY1288]

Bush did not announce anything,

[Area51]

Remember this, It was the same type of excuses/justification/reasoning that came out when
Jorge Delano Bush signed CFR into law.

And that sure worked out the way they wanted it too!

Don't kid yourself Bush WANTS this! He is just "spinning" to keep the shit from sticking! Rove is just trying to position the Pres. from taking all the heat.

[Pubbie]

"It was the same type of excuses/justification/reasoning that came out when Jorge Delano Bush signed CFR into law."

No in that instance the Congress assumed (wrongly) the SCOTUS would read the Constitution properly.

This time the House GOP simply isn't going to bring this thing up to a vote.

Big Difference.

[Pubbie]

See my post at #14