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."
You're breaking my heart.
Cassandra's make me cry on the inside.
I've heard ultra right wing conservatves here on the border make similar arguments.
"If Kerry wins, he'll legalize all of them. We won't have to put up with illegals here on the ground destroying our property. All we'll see is contrails at 35,000 feet heading from Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Hermosilla towards places like Denver, Chicago, and Cleveland."
Not exactly a loser situation here...
You already broke my heart. You're a Californian who won't admit your President is 100% wrong on his illegal immigration stance. Living in California, you know better than that.
I swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and Panaceia and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfil according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant:
To hold him who has taught me this art as equal to my parents and to live my life in partnership with him, and if he is in need of money to give him a share of mine, and to regard his offspring as equal to my brothers in male lineage and to teach them this art - if they desire to learn it - without fee and covenant; to give a share of precepts and oral instruction and all the other learning to my sons and to the sons of him who has instructed me and to pupils who have signed the covenant and have taken an oath according to the medical law, but no one else.
I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice.
I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art.
I will not use the knife, not even on sufferers from stone, but will withdraw in favor of such men as are engaged in this work.
Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons, be they free or slaves.
What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken about.
If I fulfil this oath and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with fame among all men for all time to come; if I transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite of all this be my lot.
Specifically how would you secure the Mexican border? Once they know the use of deadly force is authorized the price to be smuggled across the border will be to high.
It isn't even a bleep in the radar of the issues that voters consider the primary ones this election year.
Most important issues: When asked what they consider are the most important issues, 25% of registered voters cited the economy as the top issue, followed by 24% who cited the war on terrorism as the top issue. The situation in Iraq was rated the top issue by 17% of registered voters, moral values issues such as gay marriage and abortion were the top issue for 16% of respondents, and health care was the most important issue for 11% of respondents. -- Source
How many miles of shoreline do California, Texas, Florida, and Louisiana have?
Jim,
The border is only one of a multitude of problems. There aren't enought goberment attorneys to successfully get the illegals out of here. I believe the Immigrations Judges need to be highly scrutinized. Their decisions should be in the public domain. Does the general public really know what kind of people the judges are allowing to remain here?
Another frozen Michigander sounds off about the southern border. How quaint and unexpected.
Got news for you, honorary Canuck. The Border Patrol snagged about 180,000 in this county last year and openly admit they got only about 20%. That means an additional 720,000 made it through here.
There ain't a holler in all of Appalachia that can come remotely close to that kind of population density. Perhaps you'd like to turn snowbird and come down to help with the latrine detail?
They aren't just coming from Mexico. The guberment is estimating that there are 8-13 million illegals here. Yet, there were an estimated 650K illegals who graduated from high school last year. I'll betchya that there are a lot more illegals in each of grades K5-11 then there were in grade 12. And....how many don't go to school.
Do a google search on alien smuggling. You'll find that Chinese will pay up to $50K to get smuggled here. Now, that's a lot of money for a poor dirt farmer. They're being smuggled in as indentured servants to pay off that smuggling debt.
The rate for a coyote to smuggle middle eastern types across the border is very high. So high, a coyote could probably retire in southern Mexico on the fee.
BBC had an article a few years ago that human smuggling surpassed drug smuggling in profit. Heck, alien smuggling will only get you a slap on the wrist if caught.
I was polled by Zogby recently, and she had to "write it in;" something she claimed that she had done many times that day. Most polls that ask specifically about approval/disapproval re: illegal immigration are very clear.
Polls that ask that specific question are being run by people for whom the issue is one of primary importance, by pollsters and sites who promote that issue.
The last general poll that I saw which listed the immigration issue as an option to check off, had it come in below marijuana legalization.
No.
The issue is illegal immigration specifically, but you'll try to piggy back it with everything including hip-hop music if possible.
The illegals that act as drug mules get much better treatment. After all, that load on their back is worth a minimum of $40,000.
I must say i think you guys are generally on the correct side of this one. seems pretty clear cut to me.
Did the 9/11 terrorists sneak across the border?
Why the Mexican border when in fact it's easier to get in from Canada?
Why risk apprehension if all you have to do is get a visa and a plane ticket into the US, like the 9/11 attackers did?
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