Posted on 08/21/2004 9:04:20 PM PDT by ETERNAL WARMING
(08-21) 15:55 PDT MEXICO CITY (AP) --
President Bush's nephew, campaigning for overseas votes in Mexico on Saturday, called the federal policy of arming U.S. Border Patrol agents with plastic pellet guns "reprehensible."
Speaking in a mix of English and sometimes-halting Spanish, George P. Bush said his uncle was not to blame for the gun policy, which has angered Mexicans. He instead blamed it on "some local INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) guy who's trying to be tough, act macho."
"If there has been American approval for this policy, that is reprehensible," Bush said of the guns, essentially paintball projectiles filled with chile powder. "It's kind of barbarous."
The pellet guns, which were approved at the federal level, have been used on a trial basis since 2001 in California and Arizona. The U.S. Border Patrol fired the pepper-balls in 81 instances in 2002-03 and reported no deaths or severe injuries.
President Bush's Hispanic nephew -- he's the grandson of migrant worker Jose Maria Garnica -- is in Mexico on a week-long visit to drum up support for his uncle among the estimated 1 million Americans living there.
The younger Bush, whose father is Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and mother, Columba, is originally from Mexico, acknowledged at a news conference that the war in Iraq is not popular in Mexico but defended the military action, saying "we're almost done with it."
He also acknowledged that "there are some people in our (Republican) party who don't see the benefits of immigration," but promised that President Bush was a proponent of immigration reform.
He called Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez "a dictator" and cast doubt on his victory last week in a recall referendum, saying Chavez had "a long history of fraud." Outside observers, including former President Jimmy Carter, have endorsed the Venezuelan vote counts.
Christopher Fussner, global chairman of Republicans Abroad, which funded Bush's trip, called Mexico "the most important country" for getting overseas votes.
Fussner said Republicans are advertising in overseas English-language newspapers around the world in hopes of capturing expatriate votes.
Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's campaign also has enlisted family members to woo voters in Mexico. His sister, Diana Kerry, chairwoman of Americans Overseas for Kerry, visited Mexico City in July.
Kerry supporters also held a voter-registration and ballot-request drive in Guadalajara on Thursday.
Here's your first clue that this article is BOGUS.
P. speaks FLUENT Spanish.
Whatever... as we know though... you aren't against illegal immigration... you are against all immigration from Mexico.
Talk to you Nov 3. And I hope in 2008 whoever the Republicans nominate isn't named Bush.
Would you support allowing Mexicans to come and go and work here as freely as you and I can go to, come from, and work in Mexico?
That is a very good clue indeed. But the scion either said what was alleged or he didn't. We shall see.
How has Mexico's economy done during those two decades? Anyway, there's nothing magical about Mexican workers. You could replace all of them with workers from any other foreign country and you'd get the same results.
OK. I doubt you'll admit you looked pretty stupid for thinking Kerry would win though.
And I hope in 2008 whoever the Republicans nominate isn't named Bush.
If that person ended up as being as great a President and as conservative as this one has, I'd love it. (I'm sure most Republicans, who give GWB approval ratings as high as they gave Ronald Reagan (another President that didn't hate Mexicans, fwiw), would as well.)
Hey, I also think we should withdraw the 10th Mountain Division from its other duties and put it on the Arizona border. I guess that means I secretly want Ho Chi Minh as President!
Of course. I'm for immigration from any country whose immigrants want to work as hard in the US as the overwhelming majority of Mexico's do.
Not really. Just shows you're not that intelligent, or at least, don't really take the issue seriously enough to come up with logical solutions to the problem.
Strip him of his U.S. citizenship and make him live in Mexico!
Let's deport all of the politicians to Mexico..they seem to prefer their interests to ours. Perhaps we can have a nation that actually cares about it's people for a change.
Your link does't work.
My solution to the problem is that, if I ever come across an illegal, I will immediately call the INS. So you better have your papers in order, buddy.
Here is the UNREDACTED article:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/08/21/international1707EDT6668.DTL
That's nice. Better hope you can run fast enough to catch a few million of them.
I agree, as long as those foreign workers, no matter which country they're from, come to the United States legally.
LOL, I love these late-night flamewars.
They can't resist. LOL They resort to Demorat techniques when they don't have the facts to support their lack of argument. :0)
Of course. That's why I'm for letting Mexicans travel and work here as freely as we can travel and work there. How many "illegals" would there be if that were the case?
That's quite different from the snippet that was posted and some of the hysterics posted by others.
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