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.

There has been an unfortunate, but consistent pattern for this Administration that these leaked domestic policy stories pan out...from the Education sell-out, to the Medicare sell-out, to the Viequez sell-out, to the continued anti-gun bigotry sell-out of Norman Mineta and Tom Ridge, and the numerous and sundry sell-outs refusing to enforce borders with real muscle, and to using the force of Federal law and agencies to harass those groups monitoring the lax border and attempting to alert law enforcement to make apprehensions. This latter development is truly the most unexplainable and darkly despicable.

Rove or Card are the likely 'leakers'...with full Prez approval. Hence, whether merely a 'trial balloon' or an anticipatory leak to create 'buzz' for the Prez so he can take 'credit' for the positive voter response the brain trust is hoping will result.

It is not hard to see where, in purely Machiavellian (i.e., triangulating) terms, they are coming from: They are trying to head off the growing juggernaut of the Mexifornian vote and co-opt them from the RATS. It would appear that the strategy of trying to 'appease' the rabble-rousers among the Mexicali rights crowd has not worked for the last 3 years. GWB is drawing, selectively, the wrong lessons from his experience in Texas. These illegals will not suddenly...or even in our lifetime...switch parties. They are coming from a solidly adverse national mind-set that has grown increasingly anti-American in its biasses. Re-orienting these 'Mexican Patriots' into anything approaching 'Republican' will be a much bigger problem than he or Rove concieves. They have an entitlement mentality. Zogby did a poll of Mexicans. About 65% think they are entitled to cross the border into the U.S. Southwest...that they 'own it', and that U.S. national claims are 'illegitimate'. By going down this 'Open Border' slippery slope...and playing to this festering Mexican political malignancy, GWB is rushing the U.S. into either a possibly calamitous confrontation with a neighbor that may become open hostility, or may result in the unthinkable...subversion and guerrilla war, perhaps secessionist insurrections in the SouthWest. If we were simply four-square for defending our sovereignty...and our laws...we would restore the proper respect of our neighbors to the south. Leniency, as do all appeasements, only back-fires.

Exactly Right On! Our system is pay as you go. All legal citizens in America are supposed to first of all live and maintain a permanent Address in the United States. They are required to Register and be Fingerprinted and be placed on the Tax Rolls and pay Social Security Taxes and Income Taxes. We need to make sure all companies that have been guilty of hiring Illegal Aliens be prosecuted as part and parcel the problem we are fighting right now. English is the National "FIRST" Language and this ensures America First is maintained.

This is a Socialist Plan Of Deception coming from a Republican Administration! Did you catch that last statement About the Administration? THIS IS SOCIALIST LEGISLATION being misunderstood as Coming from a "CONSERVATIVE" point of view. President Bush is President but not delivering on CONSERVATIVE policy. His current administration is drifting toward Socialist AGENDAS and especially on this and other social programs. The Congress and Homeland Security people seem willing to go along with this evil plan so "WE THE PEOPLE" must be alert to what is transpiring and act Responsibly even if it is contrary to the Administration's intent!

Good analysis. Thank you.

It doesn't take much googling to find Mexico's corrupt government's policy of "Mexican diaspora" or "nation without borders." The extremist Mexicans here speak of their "homeland" and pro-Mexican mainstream Democrats like Art Torres brag about the "defeated" Prop 187 being the "last gasp of white America."

BTW, looks like Prop 187 is back next Nov. The orginal was never defeated in the courts. Gov. Davis refused to defend the voters who passed it and abandoned former governor Wilson's appeal of the lowest court's ruling. That sparked the first recall of Davis effort in 1999. We finally got him out this year. Who's next?

I bet Prop 187 II gets more votes here than President Bush -- unless he gives up kowtowing to his bud Vicente and brushing aside our sovereignty.

'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.'

I really think this is actually the core of this problem. The Motor Voter Bill and the zeal of the left under the Clinton administration placed millions of illegal aliens on the voting rolls by simply placing a registration card in their hands and shrouding their illegal status with a 'don't ask don't tell' cover. With their old voting blocks losing steam and their position of control turning more tenuous, they needed fresh blood and a new way to stack the vote in their favor. So what if this new block is not legally entitled to vote? At least these people breathe and aren't just names collected from the local cemetary.

The truth is, we would not have to pander to this vote if it was simply not allowed to vote. No matter how we sugar coat this, these people are entering this country illegally, they are working illegally, they are taking government services illegally, and they are VOTING ILLEGALLY. Instead of paying them for their illegal vote, we should repeal Motor Voter and crack down hard on those who violate our election laws. There should be ad campaigns that make sure everyone knows if they are not here legally they had better not even think about voting and there should be substantial penalties for doing so or aiding anyone to do so.

Of course, we know this won't happen because in less than 10 short years we have witnessed another major success of the left in redefining and controlling another critical layer of our system. Just as they seized and still hold onto our courts through literally any means necessary, they have and will do the same with our elections process. As long as the left is allowed to get away with such tactics as equating any attempt to stop a rampant form of voter fraud with 'racism', more and more legal citizens in this country will continue to have their votes cancelled out by ever growing numbers of those voting illegaly...that is, those who will even bother to continue to vote as more and more faith is lost in the process. Our vote is the voice of the citizens of this country and we are in the process of losing it to the citizens of another.

unless he gives up kowtowing to his bud Vicente and brushing aside our sovereignty.

What's puzzling --- in all these little deals Fox and Bush are making --- there is nothing given to Americans. No added rights for Americans in Mexico, no demands made of the Mexican government whatsoever. It's like some arrangement has been made that the Mexican elites can send us their entire jobless, low-skilled, uneducated class for Americans to support, we're to send that government whatever amount it thinks is right from our Social Security ---- and we get nothing at all in return.

RE: "As long as the left is allowed to get away with such tactics as equating any attempt to stop a rampant form of voter fraud with 'racism', more and more legal citizens in this country will continue to have their votes cancelled out by ever growing numbers of those voting illegaly"

Good arguments!

I believe there have been reports stating that by merely counting the massive numbers of ILLEGALS in the census it has caused changes to voting districts. So even if they don't bother to vote they have an impact on our rights and choices.

I don't know if routine voter registration is uniform up and down California but where I live you don't even need a permanent address. Just write down your nearest intersection. You do have to check yes, I am a citizen. You do have to give a driver's license number though I am sure they will accept the DMV ID given out in lieu of a driver's license. Both of course can be faked. I have never had to prove who I was to enter a booth and vote.

Sources in California believe that one reason the Dems rolled over on the licenses for ILLEGALS -- virtual unanimous vote in both houses to repeal SB60 -- was they've got a deal with Schwarzeneger to pass and sign a new one with more "security" features. Schwarzeneger's website favors taking good care of ILLEGALS but like the President he says, don't call it amnesty. I feeeeeeeel better. Gee.

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