[ED. NOTE: The precedent for guest worker programs goes back at least to the Eisenhower administration.]
The Editor's note is even more disingenuous than the President's statement.
The Eisenhower Administration's guest worker program included the forced deportation of 1.4 million Illegal Aliens. The President's "guest worker" "not an Amnesty" Amnesty will reward millions of Illegal Aliens with legal status, and put them on the track to a green card and citizenship down the road.
The Editor even snipped out the most damning reference to the President's SOTU remarks regarding his proposal to legalize Illegals:
I propose a new temporary worker program to match willing foreign workers with willing employers when no Americans can be found to fill the job. This reform will be good for our economy because employers will find needed workers in an honest and orderly system. A temporary worker program will help protect our homeland, allowing Border Patrol and law enforcement to focus on true threats to our national security.
President George W. Bush
State of the Union Address – January 20th, 2004
The President didn't have the courage to mention his plan to legalize Illegals, but did mention his plan to subject any new American job to wage-depressing competition from as many foreign labor competitors as can be found.
The President is proposing to blow open our borders and admit as many actual "guest workers" beyond the Illegals his "not an Amnesty" Amnesty would legalize, as can be hired at minimum wage, or some other wage below what Americans would demand. All of these "guest workers" would be eligible for green cards and citizenship down the road.
Some temporary workers will make the decision to pursue American citizenship. Those who make this choice will be allowed to apply in the normal way. They will not be given unfair advantage over people who have followed legal procedures from the start.
Text of Bush immigration speech
President outlines plan to give illegals legal status
This is, of course, untrue, because the Amnestied Illegals would have an unfair advantage over legitimate guest worker and immigration applicants who haven't yet been admitted, but are patiently waiting and following our laws while they do so.
It's cynical to suggest that it's not an Amnesty when millions of Illegals are legalized and given a blue card, which they can bargain into a green card, from which they can negotiate citizenship.
President Bush is proposing Amnesty, even as he claims he opposes it.
Amnesty for Illegals does not in any way reflect American values, and that's why the President is struggling so mightily to pretend that his Amnesty isn't what it obviously is.
No, that's not conservative. Neither is it conservative to enable the dissembling coming from the President and the Administration on the matter of his proposal to legalize Illegal Aliens. Splitting hairs over the definition of Amnesty is Clintonian, not conservative. Claiming that giving so-called legal "guest worker" status to Illegals is not a reward is simply dishonest.
Nor is it honest or conservative for the Editor of this piece to imply that the Bush "not an Amnesty" Amnesty is in any way built on the precedent of Eisenhower guest worker program, since Eisenhower deported most of the Illegals at the time, unlike President Bush, who would reward most of them with legal status.
Eisenhower didn't have a guest worker program that was built on appeasement of Illegal Aliens and their advocates. President Bush would like one.
