Posted on 11/21/2004 8:22:34 PM PST by ETERNAL WARMING
Bush Says Immigration Reform Coming In 2nd Term Asia-Pacific Summit Comes To An End
POSTED: 1:27 pm EST November 21, 2004 UPDATED: 1:44 pm EST November 21, 2004
SANTIAGO, Chile -- President George W. Bush has told his Mexican counterpart he campaigned for re-election on immigration reform and is ready to push it in a second term.
AP George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin wear traditional Chilean ponchos during the APEC summit in Santiago, Chile.
The president met with Vicente Fox just before they and other Pacific Rim leaders sat down for a second day of talks in Chile.
Bush has proposed a guest worker program that he insists is not an amnesty for undocumented Mexicans. But the idea was shelved after 9/11, and still faces sizable opposition in Congress.
The Asia-Pacific summit in Chile ended Sunday with a call for new steps to promote free trade -- and to fight terror.
President Bush and the other 20 leaders are urging that negotiators wrap up a new world trade deal as quickly as possible. And they're promising a series of measures aimed at protecting food supplies, airlines and other potential terrorist targets.
Those items were in a final communique read by Chilean President Ricardo Lagos, who thanked the leaders for working to ensure the region's economies grow -- and all their people benefit.
Bush has a round of talks with Lagos later Sunday, followed by a joint news conference and dinner. He heads home to Texas Monday with a stopover in Colombia.
Whats your take on the current support for Bush's guest worker program at the congressional level, and at the popular level?
It will take another president for that. One that respects concepts like national Sovereignty and Borders. This president has made it all too painfully clear that he abhors such notions.
I don't follow polls, but clearly our current arrangement is broken, and President Bush is offering a program to address the problem.
"Your kidding right?"
I'm not kidding, I'm saying that if Bush told Vicente Fox, or Katy Kuric (sp? that looks wrong,you know who I mean), or you, or me, or anyone else that he "campaigned" on this subject that is NOT SO.
He campaigned on:
The rightness of the war in Iraq
The absolute necessity of the war on (islamic, god forbid bush should say THIS word) terror
Soc. Sec. reform
Continued tax reform/tax cuts
strict constructionist judges
Those were the things he talked about. He did NOT campaign on the need for immigration "reform" which in his mind OBVIOUSLY means AMNESTY. The leftists/illegals got one amnesty. They better DAMN know they ain't getting another.
And again I say, no, I am not kidding.
Everything I thought I knew about illegal immigration I realized was wrong on 9/11/01.
Get it?
"Guest worker = temporary visitor making valuable contribution to the economy and working within the system"
Wow. We start with an illegal immigrant.
Then, "stroke of the pen, law of the land"...remember that?
Now...everyones legal "working within the system."
I wish everything was so simple.
To be fair to Bush --- what I saw of the interview between Fox and Bush in Chile didn't look all that friendly. Bush was speaking English, Fox spoke Spanish and it seemed cold. Maybe it was just the part they showed --- but it didn't look like much more than a formality.
He has? I never heard it during his campaign. All I've heard regarding immigration is his quest to grant amnesty to fifteen million illegals from South of the border. That, and swinging the doors wide open to thousands of Mexican truckers doesn't exactly amount to 'immigration reform' imo.
Good sidestep... ;0)
Just in the last few days here they did go after some Chinese restaurants here --- but they also went after some Mexicans --- not so much deporting illegals --- but they raided the swap meets again --- and arrested those Mexicans dealing in pirated CD's --- there is a big outrage for that within the Mexican commuinity here which says it's very unfair they can't buy $3 newly released movies --- they can't afford to take their kids to the movie theaters after all. They also are going after the fraudulent state inspection places where you could bypass the emissions and safety testing of your vehicles. It seems they're putting many of the Mexicans out of business also.
Well, there's now a for-profit project in TX that lets you shoot 10 .22 shells at a paper target for $5.95, it's already been posted here at FR a couple times lately...how about setting up a line of those along the Rio Grande, etc.....our own Great Wall of China/Maginot line, except better! And far cheaper....
Care to enlighten us as to what the President's 'immigration reform' consists of? I've never heard him push for anything but amnesty; but if you've got some information I'm not aware of I'd love to hear the President's specific immigration reform plans.
Lets look at about the only time in the campaign that the topic came up:
THIRD PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES' DEBATE ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY, TEMPE, ARIZONA
SCHIEFFER: Let's go to a new question, Mr. President.
I got more e-mail this week on this question than any other question. And it is about immigration.
I'm told that at least 8,000 people cross our borders illegally every day. Some people believe this is a security issue, as you know. Some believe it's an economic issue. Some see it as a human-rights issue.
How do you see it? And what do we need to do about it?
BUSH: I see it as a serious problem. I see it as a security issue, I see it as an economic issue, and I see it as a human-rights issue.
We're increasing the border security of the United States. We've got 1,000 more Border Patrol agents on the southern border.
We're using new equipment. We're using unmanned vehicles to spot people coming across.
And we'll continue to do so over the next four years. It's a subject I'm very familiar with. After all, I was a border governor for a while.
Many people are coming to this country for economic reasons. They're coming here to work. If you can make 50 cents in the heart of Mexico, for example, or make $5 here in America, $5. 15, you're going to come here if you're worth your salt, if you want to put food on the table for your families. And that's what's happening.
And so in order to take pressure off the borders, in order to make the borders more secure, I believe there ought to be a temporary worker card that allows a willing worker and a willing employer to mate up, so long as there's not an American willing to do that job, to join up in order to be able to fulfill the employers' needs.
That has the benefit of making sure our employers aren't breaking the law as they try to fill their workforce needs. It makes sure that the people coming across the border are humanely treated, that they're not kept in the shadows of our society, that they're able to go back and forth to see their families. See, the card, it'll have a period of time attached to it.
It also means it takes pressure off the border. If somebody is coming here to work with a card, it means they're not going to have to sneak across the border. It means our border patrol will be more likely to be able to focus on doing their job.
Now, it's very important for our citizens to also know that I don't believe we ought to have amnesty. I don't think we ought to reward illegal behavior. There are plenty of people standing in line to become a citizen. And we ought not to crowd these people ahead of them in line.
If they want to become a citizen, they can stand in line, too.
And here is where my opponent and I differ. In September 2003, he [Kerry] supported amnesty for illegal aliens.
SCHIEFFER: Time's up.
I'd be all for it but then we would still have to pay the $7.2 billion dollars on aspirin after the hearing from the human rights nazis.
Nonetheless the administration will claim there was a robust and candid discussion of the immigration issue during the campaign.
"I don't want anchor babies though."
BINGO...one of the chinks in the armor of the current guest worker program.
Let me expand this point further with a question...what criteria do we want to use to become a future citizen of this country...no criteria...having a job, etc.
And how will the criteria applied to these illegals differ form the criteria already applied to those who are seeking to enter the country from overseas...legally.
It's obvious. For both political parties, providing cheap labor and destroying the fiber of our nation for corporate gain are more important than representing voters.
Interesting that the Dems would rather lose than side with the voters on this one...
"President George W. Bush has told his Mexican counterpart he campaigned for re-election on immigration reform..."
The Mexicans followed the U.S. election quite closely. Sometimes it almost seemed as if Bush and Kerry were running for Presidente... and nobody down here heard anything about this.
The vocal minority anti-immigration crowd keep any thoughtful ideas and responses buried under a mountain of blind criticisms.
It is always "enforce the laws on the books" stuff when ten threads have articles about court orders saying the laws are unconstitutional and they block enforcement as a result.
Or, they are articles explaining that state and local authorities have washed their hands of the federal problem.
The Bush proposal is always called an amnesty plan, when it is not a plan yet and never will be unless congress acts. Secondly it is not amnesty because that refers to automatic citizenship or green cards, and since the "plan" is not yet a plan, we don't have any clue as to what it is, except the fact that Bush said he wanted temporary terms on the worker permit. Others in a recent hearing discussed fines for the illegal crossing as a part of the deal.
Of course, no body on these threads discuss the alternatives to doing nothing and trying to enforce laws that are unenforceable. I suppose that would be a "plan" and of course that would be an amnesty.
No, lets continue the status quo where millions of illegals work for money that is not ever taxed,either by state or local authorities, except for sales taxes, And, no social security contributions are ever made by a very large segment of our working population that includes citizens as well as illegals. I suppose that is not a issue, because making any kind of compromise to correct this would be a "plan" and therefore "amnesty".
No, lets continue to enforce the unenforceable, cry a river over the underfunded Medicare and social security programs, and allow large undocumented populations continue to grow and multiply as unassimilated islands of people who stress our resources to the breaking point, and cause untold divisive chaos in our government from medical, welfare, education, social services and even voting systems.
Because it would be a "plan" and that is amnesty.
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