Bush, Fox, promote plan to ease immigration laws

Knight Ridder Newspapers ^ | 6 March 2004 | Ron Hutcheson

[JackelopeBreeder]

Crawford, Texas - President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox joined forces Saturday to promote Bush's plan for easing immigration laws, as Bush acknowledged that the proposal faces a tough time in Congress.

Standing side-by-side in bright sunshine at Bush's Texas ranch, the two leaders said Bush's plan for a new temporary worker program would help both countries by eliminating the underground market for Mexican workers. The proposal would let an estimated 8 million workers who are in the United States illegally gain legal status as guest workers.

"The people who come to this country make a significant contribution to the American economy," Fox told reporters.

Bush's plan, announced in January, has raised expectations in Mexico and among illegal workers in this country, but it has little chance of passing Congress this year. Republican critics say the proposal would reward illegal immigrants; Democrats complain that it does not do enough to help foreign workers become U.S. citizens.

[DustyMoment]

Good point!!

[MissouriForBush]

"Was this supposed to tell me that you agreed with me on Bush being re-elected?"

Those were your words -- not mine. So I guess we're back to "square one," but let's give it a rest, OK?

[Porterville]

the rest of us are willing to do whatever it takes to close the borders of our sovereign nation against an illegal invasion from Mexico that is being directed by Vicente Fox.

LOL, by sitting on your ass in front of a LCD on a Saturday night, rable rising about El Jefe Grande?? LOL, stop it- your making side split.

[JackelopeBreeder]

I posted an article the other day, prepared by our own State Department, showing that smuggling of aliens from Mexico was generating $8 billion per year. It also stated that one-third of that money was being spent on bribes to officials on both sides of the border. I think $2.6 billion would buy a lot of politicians.

Of course this does not include the contributions from the drug smuggling cartels.

[tj005]

I agree with you all. I am not happy with the immigration situation. However, if you do not vote Bush, are you saying Kerry will be better?

What is your solution?

[Sabertooth]

But you're still voting for him, right? And if so, may I ask why?

(Not an attack--just a couple of honest questions from an interested fellow FReeper.)

To save the institution of marriage. If we lose that, the borders won't matter anyway.

Our chances of saving marriage are better with Bush and a GOP Congress.

Ironically, so are our chances of preventing any cowardly, appeasing Amnesty, because the Democrats would be worse, and all of the border hawks are Republicans.

So, I will vote for President Bush in November, and kick his Illegal Alien loving teeth in with the Save Our State iniative, which Bush will undoubtedly oppose.

He is such a piece of crap on this issue, but I am compelled to vote for him with the back of my hand.

[texastoo]

gridlock

[bluefish]

That's not true, if INS finds a person is illegal they go through the standard process of deportation those are the ones they know about, typically the ones letting the INS know they are here. The problem is the INS is under staffed and most illegals are unknown.

They are told specifically not to pursue cases. Schoold burearcracies (who get Fed dollars for the student count) prohibit any attempts to identify illegals. There are entrenched interests who benefit form illegal immigration (and our tax dollars that pay for it), and policy is allowed to be affected by it.

[txdoda]

46.7 per cent is not a majority. Therefore, logically it is a minority. IMHO.>>>>>


Yes, & if you check the link you see that the 'first' white group is 59.5%......then they ask 'white non-hispanic' & it drops to 46.7%

So apparently some hispanics report themselves as 'white'.........the total on 'hispanic' was 32.4%

And these numbers are 3 years old.

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06000.html

[navyblue]

Nevertheless, if he doesn't quit spending like a drunken sailor and if he continues to ignore the immigration problem

I represent that remark! I have been a drunken sailor and never spent money like that!

[bluefish]

heh heh.. no problem. On a following post, my spelling was so butchered that some here might think I am a drunken sailor at the moment.

[JackelopeBreeder]

I'll take somebody like DustyMoment any day. Given a chance, he won't sit in front of a monitor all day. He can come down here to Cochise County and help me push illegals back over the border.

I'm in the high four-digit numbers already. I expect to make it into the five-digit numbers by May given the current level of illegal alien traffic here. I'll send you an invitation to the party.

[philetus]

Was the state dept. bragging or complaining?
It's hard to tell these days.

[k2blader]

Thanks for the reply, Sabertooth.

To save the institution of marriage. If we lose that, the borders won't matter anyway.

Same reason I'll be voting for him as well. Here's hoping he will pursue the marriage issue with as much if not more enthusiasm as the illegal amnesty issue...

[Porterville]

I know Sierra Vista, that blimp is actually a mind reading device from the CIA station as Fort Huachuca... it is an interesting area. Grab 'em and bag 'em, but at the same time don't jump to conclusions about Bush, he isn't selling out anyone.

[Amerigomag]

Glad I checked before I went to bed.

Lots of misguided judgments on this thread. Here are the facts as they apply to California whether it fits your opinion or not:

1) Approximately 1/3 of California's budget today goes to support the consequences of illegal immigration over the last 50 years.

2) Until and unless immigration is regulated California can't solve it financial crisis no matter how well its economy recovers. There are simply too many poor and entitled residents being supported by too few productive people.

3) Illegal immigration is wreaking havoc with the California economy because immigrant birth rates are skewing the traditional ratios of poor to self supporting familes with children.

4) Recent immigrants in California are a large net drain on the public infrastructure, estimated at a lifetime average of $9000 for those without a primary education and higher yet as the educational level goes up. Recent immigrants who achieve a post secondary degree are the biggest drain because they almost exclusively enter public service driven by a passion to "help their people">

When you consider that each child in California costs the tax payer about $10,000 annually and the parents of 1/3 of the children in public school pay no state income taxes you can appreciate the burden they create.

5) It matters not what Bush has done or will do to protect our nation from Islamic terror if he allows the Pacific Southwest, and especially California, to be lost to its southern neighbor or brought to economic chaos by the public policies (exportation of poverty) of its southern neighbor.

[Porterville]

Souces?!? Serious, here is you-

1) Green Martians sucked the brains out of 100,000,00 goats and cost the average citizen of Alberta 10 cedar trees.

2)If monkeys aren't stopped from throwing poop at the polar bears, the peacocks will kill the guinea hens.

3)Dogs hate cats, but cats eat less food... uless the dog is a chiuaua and the cat is a Maine Coon.

4)If 4 horse aren't cornered in the stall, the mule will eat all of the apples.

A source, any source would support your argument (and not an Internt poll that has been FReeped)

[JackelopeBreeder]

In an overall sense, Kerry is not a solution at all.

However, from the point of view of someone who lives on the border, he could be viewed as a local solution -- and as the saying goes, all politics is local.

Kerry would just about do away with the borders as we currently know them. From a strictly local viewpoint that would be a big plus.

Instead of sneaking over the border and through my front and back yards, the illegals could just get on an airplane or bus in Mexico and head for their destination of choice here in the good old US of A. Everybody gets cheap lettuce, cheap lawn service, and cheap labor while I don't have to worry about scattering Paco's sh!t to the wind for trying to "borrow" my truck for his journey.

So who should I vote for? Or should I even bother voting at all?

[texastoo]

If we lose our borders, how long do you think we will have a GOP congress?

[txdoda]

Saber, have you seen this from todays news conference ??

Bush allowed Fox to announce it was CONFIRMED today that mexicans w/visas would NOT be photographed/fingerprinted at the borders......

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/03/20040306-3.html

(snip)
FOX: "And that is why we welcome President Bush's proposal that he made in January. And that is why, in our meetings, we worked to advance this proposal, and that's what we have been doing today. We welcome the news that was confirmed today with regard to visitors to the U.S. from Mexico. We recognize the value to those who come to the United States to work, to study, to contribute. And we appreciate what this will do to the flow of visitors now that they will not have to be photographed or fingerprinted at the frontier for short visits to the United States. We appreciate what that will do the flow of people coming to this country."

"The other good news this year is the -- about the NAFTA visa for professionals, that allows professionals to come and work in either country and contribute to both."

(snip)
PRESIDENT BUSH: "Well, we just -- the President just discussed the border crossing cards, the issue of the border crossing cards. And he discussed the professional visas. And so we're making progress."

btw......What is a NAFTA visa holder ???