Posted on 09/27/2004 11:40:43 PM PDT by Robert Lomax
The U.S. has no plans to deploy troops along the Mexican border to stanch the deluge of illegal aliens currently pouring into the country at the rate of 3 million per year, President Bush said in an interview broadcast on Monday.
"As the governor of Texas, I was very aware of this issue," Bush told Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly.
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"There is a long border, that makes it hard to control. We have beefed up places along the border to try to stop" the flow, he said. When told that his policy didn't seem to be working, Bush insisted, "It’s working a little better.
"They're doing a pretty good job down in Arizona, which is the main border crossing. ... I think there's a thousand more border patrol agents along the border. We’re modernizing border techniques, we’re using better surveillance methods to stop this crossing at the border."
The president contended, however, that illegal immigration was driven primarily by the economic realities of the region.
"If you can make 50 cents in the interior of Mexico and five bucks in the interior of the United States, you're coming for the five bucks," he explained.
"I happen to believe the best way to enhance the border is to have temporary-worker cards available for people," he said. "I think the long-term solution for this issue on our border is for Mexico to grow a middle class. That's why I believe in NAFTA."
When warned that "a lot of people are not going to like that answer," Bush told O'Reilly, "Well it’s a, a truthful answer."
Would you say that to the faces of my neighbors, who lost their 7 year old to a drunken illegal alien? They'd rip your head off.
Mexico has an extremely high birth rate --- and while a generation for Americans is about 30 years, it's about 15 years over there --- our population doubled in the last 50 years and much of that doubling was from immigration from Mexico. We can't keep absorbing impoverished people at the rates we've been seeing.
Indeed.
Don't get me wrong - I think there is a mandate against illegal immigration. I just don't think it's a mandate for draconian tactics - land mines, military engaging border crossers, or even a 1500 mile wall.
Vicente Fox is doing nothing to improve their lives in Mexico because he wants them to leave --- his economic plan for his country was for as many to leave as possible, get to the USA and send money back home which he figures filters up to the elite class.
The problem is that there's no mandate for doing anything effective about the problem, because effective measures would inconvenience the folks who oppose illegal immigration in the abstract.
You are half correct. I can keep American drunks off my property, but not Mexican drunks. They are a protected species (hey, they save us 25 cents a quart on strawberries).
You apparently missed the thread were another of California's fine cities stopped random checkpoints because they were finding too many unlicensed illegals.
You think they would stop the checkpoints if they found a bunch of American's driving drunk?
Must be a tough life to be a victim.
America's border is geting raped on a daily basis. Why don't you take a poll and find out if American's feel that it's tough being victimized by the illegal invastion of our nation.
It's not just about me, though I am on the front lines.
He has also lost my vote because of his refusal to stop this invasion.
If you can make 50 cents in the interior of Mexico and five bucks in the interior of the United States, you're coming for the five bucks," he explained.
Aren't you the person that said the GOP wont do anything for us because we haven't done anything for them?
By any means necessary.
We've already asked politely.
Maybe we should have begged Saddam a little more too?
He never had your vote to begin with, as you were a very vocal Brigadier.
Yes.
I don't watch CNN.
Well, I think a little higher of you but if you insist on denigrating yourself, go ahead.
Yeah. You know something? It's still true. The folks concerned about illegal immigration haven't done jack-s**t for the GOP. It's too much like work, after all.
I agree. It's basically an economic problem.
And I'm on record as being opposed to illegal immigration and or socialist giveaway programs and their resulting high cost of taxation.
When Bush said that, he invited the entire third world in here.
When he made that comment, the entire room where I was located got down right ugly.
There is no public support for your 'any means necessary' standard.
That's what I have been saying all along.
Cry me a river. I suspect he never had either one of your votes to begin with.
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