Posted on 12/27/2004 9:23:23 AM PST by calcowgirl
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush faces a major rebellion within his own party if he follows through on a promise to push legislation that would offer millions of illegal immigrants a path to U.S. citizenship. Almost no issue divides Republicans as deeply.
To get the guest-worker initiative through Congress, Bush will need to go against the wishes of many Republicans and forge bipartisan alliances. That's what President Clinton did in 1993 to win approval for a free trade agreement with Mexico and Canada, over objections of a large bloc of congressional Democrats.
The chance seems slim for finding common ground between those in favor of liberalized immigration laws - Bush, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for example - and those who want fewer immigrants, tougher border controls and harsher penalties.
Opposition is strongest among House Republicans.
"In our party, this is a deep division that is growing deeper every minute," says Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo. He heads a group of 70 lawmakers who are against easing immigration laws.
Tancredo said Bush's guest-worker proposal is "a pig with lipstick" and will not pass.
Bush asserts that he won valuable "political capital" in the election and intends to spend it. It is not clear how much of that he is willing to spend on the immigration measure.
Higher on his list of priorities is overhauling the Social Security system, rewriting the tax laws, limiting lawsuit judgments, and making his first-term tax cuts permanent.
An estimated 10 million immigrants live in the United States illegally; the vast majority are from Mexico, with an additional million arriving every year.
A hint of the trouble ahead for Bush on immigration came this month when proposals to tighten - not ease - border restrictions nearly undermined a bill to restructure U.S. intelligence agencies.
The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee wanted the measure to bar states from giving a driver's license to illegal immigrants. Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., said some of the Sept. 11 hijackers gained access to U.S. aircraft by using a driver's license as identification.
Sensenbrenner ultimately backed down, but only after House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill, promised that the chairman's proposal would be considered in separate legislation in 2005.
Hastert also indicated he would not move ahead on major legislation unless it was supported by a majority of Republicans in the GOP-controlled House - and that he would not rely on Democratic support to pass a bill.
Immigration overhaul is "an issue that splits both parties, and given the new Hastert rule, may never go anywhere," said William A. Niskanen, chairman of the libertarian Cato Institute. Niskanen was a member of President Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers.
The president's plan would grant temporary-worker status, for three years to six years, to millions of undocumented workers. It also would it easier for those workers to get permanent U.S. citizenship.
As governor of Texas, Bush was committed to immigration changes. As president, he came close to making a deal with Mexican President Vicente Fox in the days before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Those plans were put on hold as tighter borders took on a higher priority for the United States.
As a presidential candidate, both in 2000 and 2004, Bush eagerly courted Hispanics, the fastest-growing ethnic group in the electorate.
"We will keep working to make this nation a welcoming place for Hispanic people, a land of opportunity para todos (for all) who live here in America," Bush told the League of United Latin American Citizens last summer.
Bush claimed 35 percent of Hispanic voters in 2000 and at least 40 percent last Nov. 2, according to exit polls. That compares with the 21 percent won by Bob Dole in 1996 and the 25 percent that Bush's father got in 1992.
Republican consultants suggest Bush will not make a big push for his immigration bill until he has achieved his goals on Social Security and the tax laws. They also say the president may jettison the immigration bill if it would jeopardize other parts of his agenda.
Inside the administration, nobody is suggesting that passing the immigration plan would be anything other than extremely difficult.
"We don't want to overpromise," Secretary of State Colin Powell said during a visit last month to Mexico City.
EDITOR'S NOTE Tom Raum has covered Washington for The Associated Press since 1973, including five presidencies.
To: Marine Inspector
I'm nowhere near the most prolific anti illegal immigration poster on FR, but if I were, It would not bother me one bit and if you find it inflammatory rhetoric, thats just your opinion. Many more would disagree with you.
Yeah right, and hillary doesn't pander, either. Sheesh you all are a hubristic lot, kinda of like hillary. A question, are you pounding on your keyboard in a pink dress.
Yes, I am vitriol towards the Presidents proposal, because it will fail if implemented. If he wishs to go back and propose a different and better bill, I may support it. It all depends on whether or not I think it would work.
What you think? At least you are being somewhat honest, but you are also an admitted member of a FED govt. union.
In my experience, FED govt. unions are the last bastion of defying common sense, kinda of like the antics of PATCO(Fed Govt. air controllers union) back in 81, when they defied that evil Ronald Reagan and all for their selfish interests which slowed down the American airline industry, kinda of like the union which "represents" USAir workers is going to put that airline out of business.
To: Missouri Ping IOW, HELP!!!!!
"A question, are you pounding on your keyboard in a pink dress."
Yeah, you sure proved him wrong with deductive logic!!
You had BETTER ping for help, you need it.
The high costs of low-priced produce
By Dimitri Vassilaros
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, December 12, 2004
The more you learn about illegal immigration, the less you should like it. Chances are you never cared much for it in the first place.
The Migrant Education Program gives you 897,000 more reasons to be disgusted by the stealth invasion from Mexico.
Taxpayers paid $393,600,000 last year to educate many of the roughly 900,000 eligible offspring of migrant workers in America. All of whom could be in this country illegally.
"Could," because thanks to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1982, Plyler v. Doe, the government is not even allowed to ask parents if they are here illegally before they sign up for the government program.
Children ages 3 through 21 are entitled to a free education just because they are here. Even if the 21-year-old is married. And has children.
Services include tutorial programs, after-school extended hours, summer programs, in-home programs, health and social support services, parental involvement, advocacy, language arts and, of course, enrichment.
What? No frequent-flier miles on AeroMexico?!
The MEP "Artistas del Verano" program is "to increase the self-esteem and cultural awareness of migrant teenagers through the visual arts and academic enrichment. Participants were encouraged to study their own culture and bring to the design of the murals an image or icon to represent themselves."
The College Assistance Migrant Program is "a federally funded program designed for first-year college students from migrant and seasonal farm worker families. Pennsylvania's CAMP program is located at Penn State University. Established in 1972, CAMP has been available at Penn State since 1993. CAMP offers pre-college transition and first-year support services to help students develop the skills they need to stay in college and graduate."
High school dropouts do not fall through the cracks. They are offered alternatives, according to Suzanne E. Benchoff, director of migrant services. She oversees the implementation of the program in 30 Pennsylvania counties.
"We offer Web-based cyber schools to earn a Mexican high school diploma. They are provided with laptop computers, and our centers have high-speed DSL and T1 lines."
Ay caramba.
Apologists for illegal immigration (usually leaders of the two dominant political parties) tell you that foreigners are needed to do the work that lazy Americans will not do. ---snip----
Illegal Accused Of Murdering
Nun Had Deportation Orders
By Jim Lynch
The Oregonian
9-6-2
The man indicted Thursday in Klamath Falls on charges of raping and killing a nun was apprehended in the Portland railroad yards in 1992 by a federal immigration official who made him promise to leave the country.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service agent who arrested Maximiliano Silerio Esparza on Oct. 21, 1992, apparently was unaware that Esparza wasn't just another undocumented immigrant. Esparza had been in a California prison earlier that year and had already received formal deportation orders from an Arizona immigration judge.
Esparza was asked to sign an I-210, a form that is part of the INS' most casual deportation program, which some INS agents derisively call "catch-and-release." The document made him acknowledge he was in the United States illegally and promise to leave shortly, according to an internal INS record of the incident obtained by The Oregonian.
A month later, Portland police arrested Esparza on suspicion of selling cocaine in Old Town. But again Esparza was released -- this time after one night in jail. Esparza was later indicted on the drug charges but never showed up at court in January 1993. He has had a warrant out for his arrest ever since.
Ed Sale, spokesman for the INS Portland District, said he couldn't comment on any of the agency's encounters with Esparza. He said the INS relies on police to inform it when a potentially illegal immigrant has been arrested. He also said the agency's 1992 encounter with Esparza in Portland may have been handled by the U.S. Border Patrol, which is part of INS but not directly overseen by the Portland office.
Esparza was indicted by a Klamath Falls grand jury Thursday on 11 counts, including aggravated murder, rape and sodomy. Police say Esparza rode a train from Portland to Klamath Falls last weekend before visiting a strip bar and then attacking two nuns early Sunday morning while they were praying on a downtown bike path.
Authorities say he head-butted one of the nuns, then proceeded to rape them both while controlling them with the rosary beads around their necks. Helen Chaska -- who went by the name Sister Helena Maria -- died in the attack, strangled by her own beads, according to an autopsy report.
Klamath County Prosecutor Ed Caleb is seeking the death penalty for Esparza. He said he is putting two staff investigators on the case full time to try to piece together Esparza's past. Investigators, Caleb said, are looking into as many as nine different aliases Esparza has used.
Esparza's 1992 record shows:
He was released from a California prison under the alias Martin Martinez on Jan. 15 after serving three years for robbery and kidnapping. He was supposed to be deported by the INS at that time, but it's not clear whether he ever was. Immigration records, however, show that he was ordered deported on Jan. 31 in Florence, Ariz. -- but this time under the alias Victor Batres-Martinez.
When he was picked up by the INS and Portland police later that year, he went by Maximiliano Silerio Esparza, which is the same name under which he is being held in Klamath Falls. It also happens to be the name of the governor of the northern Mexican state of Durango from 1989 to 1998.
The Oregonian has learned that Klamath County investigators suspect Esparza used other aliases over the years, including Mateo Jimenez, Manuel Martinez Martinez, Victor Martinez Guerrero and Jose Garcia Perez.
When Esparza was apprehended by the INS in Portland in October 1992, he said he entered the United States in September 1985 through the U.S. border town of San Ysidro, south of San Diego, according to the incident document. ---snip----
also:
http://www.immigrationshumancost.org/text/crimevictims.html
Wonderful
STFU
That's because FR management does not view illegal immigration as a problem.
Thanks, but I'm doing fine.
???
Well Savage, let me introduce you to the Bell Curve. Distribution always follow the bell curve.
Income distribution follows the Bell Curve. On the left shoulder of the curve are the poor people and on the right shoulder are the rich people.
If you were to deport all those poor mexicans on the left shoulder, the curve will quickly shift to the right, resulting in a wholenew set of poor people.
Don't you remember that Economics 101?
Now thats an intelligent reply.
I get nothing from a thread despoiled of its purpose by the inane, petty, often invective litter left by the President's "guest workers" supporters.
When it comes from the other side it is almost always replies in kind.
I may have missed some subtle wit and substantive message but I get nothing from your reply except as noted above.
I do not support the President on the issue of "guest workers".
It goes perfectly with you completely unintelligent comment.
Who do you hate more; Mexicans, Bush, or me?
I don't hate Mexicans, but I have a very strong dislike of illegal aliens.
Youre just annoyance, kind of like dog shit stuck to the bottom of your shoe.
And Bush, I dont hate him, but hes either an idiot when it comes to immigration or his advisors are.
"If we get rid of all the poor mexicans then there will be no poor people? "
Now, Ben,you know I never said that. YOU DID. Interesting little trick, though, to the one lurker who might be dumb enough to think I did.
Interested in talking facts? No, I thought not.
The only economics you understand is the one that profits you and costs the rest of us.
Professor Walter Williams explains: "Moral hazard arises when people behave in ways to satisfy themselves, but because they don't bear the full cost, their behavior comes at the detriment of others. Moral hazard is a pervasive problem, and it's only relatively recently that economic and legal scholars have begun to pay attention to it."
I won't bother to read any reply from you to me, because it will just be filled with more propaganda. You will only get more information and facts from me, I refuse to engage someone who twists words and meanings. Adios!!
I find it rather interesting that some politicians and news outlets had "suddenly" discovered that we just might have a problem with illegal immigration even though many insiders have been fully aware of the billions and billions of our tax $ spent on these people, the vast majority of which care nothing about this country, have latched onto our welfare system and are milking it dry.
Our current immigration policy (or lack of) just seems to be devoid of any sort of rational, well thought out game plan that should've been designed to eliminate what I believe to be a major clash of cultures that may be coming soon.
The problem is that we have essentially a bankrupt entity (the fedgov, to the tune of tens of trillions) lavishing a lifestyle on untold #'s of illegals, many of whom are using multiple names to collect benefits, while at the same time squeezing American taxpayers and small businesses to the breaking point for more and more tax $. Realistically, the day is nearing when we will have a severe economic disruption to the point that the fedgov will no longer be able to provide for people who have no skills, cannot speak English and are here breeding purposes only.......What's going to happen to our cities the day the checks stop and all these "services" are no longer available?
It's not going to be pretty and in all likelihood to maintain our fedgov-provided "security" it may come down to a choice of relinquishing some of our liberty to maintain some semblance of order. I hope it does not come to that because our forefathers have provided plenty of warning about exchanging liberty for security but with so many uninformed Americans running around needing their six pack/football/Oprah fix they will go along with anything.
Due to the fact I'm not a member of the "everything just happens by accident" crowd, I'm always leery of media types who just now happen to "get it".........is it for real or just being the useful idiots they usually are, is the intention to slowly stoke the fire of racial tension so that the coming explosion will go off as planned??????
I guess this means that you no comprende el bell curvo.
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