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.

[JackelopeBreeder]

I'm in a safe state anyway (Mexifornia).

I can't even begin to predict how Arizona will go. I can tell you a lot of local Republicans are totally livid over the border issue. A large number of them, all of whom busted their butts getting Bush elected, are no longer willing to hold their noses and vote for someone who constantly comes down on the wrong side of the one issue that affects them every day.

For us the border and illegal aliens are not a vicarious experience. It is not something we read about or see on TV. It is an ugly and dangerous reality that we -- our friends, our neighbors, our families -- are forced to live with on a daily and nightly basis.

[millefleur]

I've read all the posts for this thread and I don't think anyone has mentioned the New World Order.

Don't you get it ?
Bush is not concerned anymore with "winning" for the Republican Party.

The game (as though it were sports teams) of flipping the Presidency from Dem to Repub has gone on long enough for the incremental advances to finally reach the very door of the NWO.

We are about to pass through and lose our nation forever.

[Jorge]

Yeah, come election night I think Bush is finally going to hear what the little people have been saying.

Right. So you'll give Bush NO CREDIT whatsoever for the long list of pro-conservative positions and accomplishments during his first term.
If you don't like ONE thing he does, ya'll are will to help elect a Democrat liberal. Incredible!

I can only thank God that the other side has it's share of people just as short-sighted and foolish as to abandon their party over a single pet peeve issue.

I don't agree with everything Bush does, but when I add up the pros and cons, Bush wins hands down and I will definitely vote for him.

[JackelopeBreeder]

Yep. And we have FTAA waiting in the wings as the next big advance.

[Porterville]

Puke, I think that if Bush does anything short of putting up a brick wall 20 feet high armed with gun turrets and predator drones- some of you wouldn't be happy. Not all solutions require an ax and hammer... sometimes it takes finesse but of course I might as well be talking to Jethro in a wife-beater or Melvin in a cubicle.

[MissouriForBush]

You don't seem to understand that all of Bush's accomplishments are absolutely meaningless 20 years down the road if we will not control our borders and do not place a value on our citizenship.

[Porterville]

Yep those methamphetamine labs are cooking night and day...and somebody has to bring the drugs into el Norte...

You know how much meth is made by white trash in their shacks with generations of history in America.... Puke

[Porterville]

You don't seem to understand that all of Bush's accomplishments are absolutely meaningless 20 years down the road if we will not control our borders and do not place a value on our citizenship.

You don't seem to understand that working out a guest worker program to identify people already HERE is a good thing...but you would rather live in the dark.

[CoolGuyVic]

"I don't agree with everything Bush does, but when I add up the pros and cons, Bush wins hands down and I will definitely vote for him."

Then consider yourself lucky. Your views must be different than mine. Let me make a quick, personal list.

Pros -
A few stands for the pro-life cause.
Tax cuts.

Cons -
Misguided War on Terror
Illegal, criminal aliens issue.(A big issue for me.)
Spending.(Another biggie)
Patriot Act and associated legislation.
Pandering to groups, with our tax money, that won't vote for him anyway.

A very quick and dirty list. The negs, for me, well outweigh any positives.

[tertiary01]

My brother was just telling me that the car dealership he works for just had a Mexican try to buy a car yesterday by giving a bogus social security number. They turned the incident over to the Social Security Administration and the police. He said this is becoming fairly common in Napa. These guys are just making up numbers and hoping to not get caught. If they just happen upon your SS# and they earn money without paying taxes under your SS# the IRS can bill you for the taxes.

[Porterville]

Well you better hurry and get Pat Buchanan on the ticket.

[MissouriForBush]

Your comment exposed the darkness that is advantageous for you to live in.

[Missouri]

The "million dollar" question is "how do we keep President Bush in office and stop this invasion by illegals?

If this country continues its high immigration rate, both legal and illegal, our conservative vote will be so diluted that we won't even be able to get one elected as dogcatcher. Also our fellow Americans in places like Cochise County are suffering on account of our Federal governments policy of weak border and immigration law enforcement.

Check this article out

Link to F.A.I.R. article

I wish President Bush or Carl Rove would read this.

[Porterville]

You disagree with Bush? Your not willing to give him a chance on illegal immigration?

Usual complainin belly aching group from every thread, "I ain't voting for Bush, he likes Mexicans, my God!! Can you believe he likes Mexicans, they don't belong picking oranges legally, they should be only in the shadows- a legal guest working program, oh my, the Mexicans are going to take my job as a CPA after their done working at the Motel 6; oh dear their cooking meth too!!"

Same ole chicken little garbage I expect- nothing to offer but a whole lot of screaming.

[JackelopeBreeder]

You don't seem to understand that working out a guest worker program to identify people already HERE is a good thing...

Sure it is -- but only if we get to deport them as fast as we identify them.

[philetus]

I think the time is coming when we won't have any choice at all.

[Porterville]

Atrophy takes time, can't chop off a muscle without infection setting in and losing the whole appendage... slow and steady atrophy, that is the answer.

[CoolGuyVic]

What Bush apparently doesn't realize is that making them legal isn't going to solve anything, long term. If our citizens really won't do the kind of work that illegals do, there must be something seriously wrong with our society; something that breeds lazy people.

In 20 years time, when these immigrants' children grow up, they will be "infected" by our lazy culture and not be willing to pick the lettuce their fathers picked. Then what? Ship in some more illegals and repeat the cycle?

[MissouriForBush]

How convenient of you to make this solely into a "racist," anti-Mexican issue.

Sorry, that no longer works.

[Jorge]

You don't seem to understand that all of Bush's accomplishments are absolutely meaningless 20 years down the road if we will not control our borders and do not place a value on our citizenship.

So you're saying that if Bush gives some degree of legal guest worker status to people ALREADY here;

The Ban on Partial Birth Abortion — by far the most significant roll-back of abortion on demand since Roe v. Wade, is meaningless.

The fact that Bush killed Clinton's "ergonomic" rules that OSHA was about to implement; rules would have shut down every home business in America, means NOTHING.

Killed;
.. the Kyoto Global Warming Treaty..... ...U.S. involvement in the International Criminal Court....
..the U.S. - CCCP ABM Treaty that was preventing the U.S. from deploying our ABM defenses.....
...foreign aid that would be used to fund abortions...
...Successfully executed 2 wars: Afghanistan and Iraq. 50 million people who had lived under tyrannical regimes now live in freedom...

None of these mean a THING to you simply because Bush supports a guest worker program for people ALREADY in this country.

Sorry, but I find that irrational.