Posted on 01/18/2005 12:30:27 AM PST by gubamyster
Bush vows to overhaul immigration laws, but others say most of his political capital will go to efforts to revise Social Security and tax system.
By Mary Curtius, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — Even as President Bush stresses his commitment to reworking the nation's immigration laws, some key supporters on the issue say it is so politically divisive that they doubt he can achieve his goal, given the administration's ambitious agenda.
In interviews last week, Bush insisted he would pursue legislation that would legalize some of the estimated 8 million undocumented immigrants in the United States by granting them temporary worker status. Under his plan, illegal immigrants could apply for legal status and, if they qualified, could stay in the country for as long as six years.
Some conservative Republicans have denounced the plan as a form of amnesty, and say it would encourage illegal immigration. But Bush has said he would deal with the problem of illegal immigrants in a humane way. And he has linked the plan to national security.
"It's a big, important issue because there are millions of people here" illegally, Bush told the Wall Street Journal. "I happen to believe that a reform of the legal system, a guest worker program, for better lack of a word … will help border security."
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), an outspoken advocate of immigration reform, has said that Bush convinced him during a recent meeting that the president was serious about pursuing legislation this session. McCain is working with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the Senate's key Democratic player on the issue, to try to develop bipartisan legislation.
But several immigrant advocacy groups, labor unions and lawmakers who would be involved in such an initiative say the White House has not reached out to them to produce
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
I've heard comments similar to yours from some of my good Catholic friends.
Regards
How does anyone know?
Vicente Fox claims there are 25 million of his citizens in the USA. He might know--- he likely helped most of them pack. Half the state of Zacatecas is gone --- and that's not nearly enough in the minds of the Mexican elite.
The problem with the Catholic Church --- it has little interest in demanding that the good and very wealthy, greedy Mexican Catholics make any changes in Mexico. Mexican injustice is the biggest force in the massive flood of people out. Mexico just raised minimum wage to the equivalent of $4.15 a DAY --- yet Mexico competes with England and Germany in number of billionaires and has excellent natural resources.
>"The problem with the Catholic Church --- it has little interest in demanding that the good and very wealthy, greedy Mexican Catholics make any changes in Mexico"<
-that is troubling.
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