Posted on 12/20/2004 7:43:46 AM PST by television is just wrong
Conservatives critical of President Bush's "liberal" stance on immigration are praising Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's position on the issue.
Before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Bush and Mexico President Vicente Fox were working together on a plan to legalize the millions of foreign workers who sneak into the country across the 1,900-mile border with Mexico.
Since Nov. 2 when Bush increased his support in both red and blue states, Sen. Clinton has been staking out a conservative position on immigration.
Evidently, her plan is to tap into a feeling by most Americans that illegal immigration is a sizable national problem that should not be ignored.
"I am, you know, adamantly against illegal immigrants," Sen. Clinton said during a radio interview.
When Clinton said, "People have to stop employing illegal immigrants," she could have been giving advice to Bernard Kerik, Bush's nominee to be Secretary of Homeland Security.
Kerik, tapped by Bush to be one of the top law enforcement and security officials in the nation, had hired a housekeeper who was in the United States illegally. Not only was Kerik's housekeeper breaking the law, so was Kerik for hiring her.
It is illegal to hire illegal immigrants. The law is seldom enforced because Congress has been too timid to establish a reliable method for employers to identify citizens from noncitizens or legal from illegal workers.
Illegal immigrants have no problem becoming documented workers. It is easier for illegal immigrants to obtain some form of false identification sufficient to let employers off the hook than it is for underage college students to get phony IDs to buy booze.
Sen. Clinton's husband experienced an embarrassment similar to Bush's when he nominated Zoe Baird to be attorney general only to discover that she had hired an illegal immigrant to be a housekeeper and nanny. The same happened to Bush in 2001 with his nominee for labor secretary, Linda Chavez.
There has been talk about the need for the IRS to simplify the forms so employers can file and pay taxes for illegal immigrant workers. That might eliminate the tax problems but not the status of workers illegally hired.
The key to enforcing employer sanctions against hiring illegal immigrants will have to be some form of national standards to reliably identify citizens from noncitizens. That is the same key needed to implement and enforce Bush's proposed guest-worker program. If we can't reliably tell who is legal and who is illegal, then the U.S. immigration laws will remain an unenforceable joke no matter how many Americans think illegal immigration is a serious problem.
It is on this point that Congress goes wobbly even when the obvious answer is presented to it on a platter as it was in four reports between 1994 and 1997 when Barbara Jordan, chair of the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, testified that her commission's unanimous recommendation was for a standardized, counterfeit-resistant identification system.
Jordan's bipartisan and diverse commission concluded that this nation must enforce its laws. To do so, Congress had to authorize a national identification system.
Sen. Clinton has hinted at the same solution. She has talked about an entry and exit ID and "a move towards an ID system even for citizens."
There's no question that the United States needs and depends on the labor of foreign workers. And there's no question that many illegal foreign workers are taken advantage of.
What needs to be done is to protect foreign workers and also restore America's rule of law. Since 9/11 there's also national security to consider. Maybe Sen. Clinton has a winning issue.
-- Rowland Nethaway writes for The Waco (Texas) Tribune-Herald.
So, the only "base" he has is...Christians? Of what flavor, genius? You really think Baptists in the South are all in favor of mass illegal immigration? Hear lil' Georgie going from church to church in North Carolina, extolling the wonders of millions of aliens colonizing their state? Funny, but I noticed he went down there and did just the opposite.
Why doncha go ask them yourself, kid. See if they agree with what he just said, or if they buy the basic line that "mass illegal immigration is no problem". I can safely tell you that you won't get a positive response on that.
You will see what I'm talking about when the issue comes up. I lived through prop 187 in CA.
Being a rube is not a required. You just need people to believe the propaganda in the slow methodical process that it is presented.
Remember, we have always been at war with Eurasia.
I know, I picked 'cots one summer in the 70s. Hard work, but somehow we lilly white suburban kids managed to get the job done.
It's all BS. "They only do the jobs...blah blah". A mantra the elite wants us to repeat. Like the other poster said...'We have always been at war with Eurasia'.
Hmmmm? But these people now supporting Hillary are the very same who wanted AMNESTY FOR ALL IMMIGRANTS.
Geeeee .. what a change of position!
Doesn't make sense does it. But since when do dems make sense?
Of course not. Whoever would trust her is a moron.
Just search for threads containing "Hillary" and "immigration" and you'll see dozens of people saying that if Hillary simply promises to do what they want with the illegals, then they'll vote for her.
He is right up there with LBJ.
Thanks for this post. African-Americans are part of the Dem's base too---more than Hispanics---and across the board, they're starting to get royally PO'd at their displacement in their jobs and in their neighborhoods by illegals. Hillary isn't stupid. But Republicans who weave daydreams about locking up the "Hispanic vote" are.
Laws? We don' need no stinking laws!
More likely, he's moving to make sure he keeps his job. He hasn't shown much concern for US citizens' job security for the last two decades, but you can bet he places a high priority for his own job security.
I was raised in the country and I remember the bracero program back in the 40's and 50's. It was well regulated and the workers were supervised. That is to say they were not free to roam off and do what they pleased.
Maybe a small guest worker program wouldn't be all that bad if we would regulate it - which the government won't.
Besides, why are we considering a guest worker program anyway? Americans are without work and there are illegal Mexicans standing on almost every street corner in Dallas looking for work. It doesn't make any sense to me.
You forgot the Bildibergers, the CFR, the Trilats and fluoridated water.
? I heard about flurodated water, but who the heck are the bildebergers? the CFR and the Trilats? Please elaborate.
If you don't know about them you have no idea what the "new world order" is all about. Everyone who is anyone knows that.
Ah, just entered a sight from google. Looks interesting. Masonry? Illuminati, Skull and Bones.
They only reason I speak of NWO is because both Bush's and Clinton ( concrete individuals have brought it up in speeches during their tenure.)
Bush the elder mentioned it in regard to Gulf War 1 in a speech to the UN but I don't remember Clinton saying it. The NWO has become an umbrella term for all of the global governance theories especially regarding the UN. GW has been the most anti-UN president in history so I don't think he can be tagged with the NWO label.
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