Posted on 01/27/2005 7:15:50 PM PST by neverdem
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 - The battle within the Republican Party over immigration policy was joined Wednesday as President Bush vigorously promoted his proposal for a guest worker program and conservatives in Congress introduced an alternative proposal to tighten immigration restrictions.
At a news conference, President Bush said again that he considered his guest worker proposal "a priority" even though Senate Republicans left it off their list of top goals. "A program that enables people to come into our country in a legal way to work for a period of time, for jobs that Americans won't do, will help make it easier for us to secure our borders," Mr. Bush said, adding: "I know there is a compassionate, humane way to deal with this issue. I want to remind people that family values do not end at the Rio Grande border."
Party conservatives, however, have strenuously opposed a guest worker plan since Mr. Bush introduced the idea in 2001, even staging a losing revolt over its inclusion in the party platform at the 2004 Republican convention. Many conservatives call the president's ideas "amnesty" - a term Mr. Bush disputes - because his plan includes ways for currently illegal immigrants to obtain temporary worker permits.
On Wednesday afternoon, Representative F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., the Wisconsin Republican who is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, again introduced a measure to block illegal immigrants from obtaining driver's licenses.
At a news conference, he said the committee would not consider other immigration proposals, implicitly including the president's, until his own measure passed. A similar measure was removed from a bill to enact the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission last year. Senator Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, is expected to introduce a driver's license restriction this year.
Mr. Sensenbrenner said his bill was primarily directed at border security, distinguishing it from other changes in immigration policy. "Immigrants are not terrorists, except a few of them," he said. "The legislation that was introduced today is designed to get the bad apples out of the barrel before the barrel was spoiled."
He said a group of House Republicans had written a letter to Mr. Bush urging him to provide full financing for provisions in last year's antiterrorism bill doubling the number of border patrol agents and tripling the number of beds for detaining illegal immigrants over the next five years. The Department of Homeland Security said recently that it was planning a smaller increase in financing, drawing the ire of advocates of tighter immigration laws.
Asked about the president's proposal, Mr. Sensenbrenner said his committee was "going to be plenty busy with other priorities, a lot of which are the priorities of the White House."
In an interview, Representative Chris Cannon, a Utah Republican who supports the president's plan, said a guest worker program would not amount to an amnesty because it would include a monetary penalty for currently illegal immigrants. "The people who want to kick them all out are not reasonable people," he said.
But Representative Tom Tancredo, Republican of Colorado and chairman of the Congressional immigration caucus, vowed to defeat any program that in his view would reward lawbreakers, even questioning the president's motives. "Could it be just the corporate interests, the money interests that rely so heavily on cheap labor?" he asked
Post 283 idiot! You shouldn't post while drunk or stupid.
Umm Dorothy, Ronald Reagan's quote is post #262. Now quit talking about yourself, read it, then tell us what you think.
Your response in 283 was a joke. You completely danced around the fact Reagan supported tough measures against employers, not rewards disguised as compassion.
Jan. 28, 2005 NEW POLL UP!
This poll refers to an ID # given by the IRS for Federal tax purposes only. At least 5 states are accepting this ID card to give social services, registering to vote, even sell property to Illegal Aliens. Financing institutions love it and make excuses that "it should be" legal.
Do you believe state governments should allow illegal aliens to use a federal identification number to obtain rights intended for U.S. citizens?
Yes 6% 156 votes
No 94% 2650 votes
Total: 2806 votes
http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight/
The show will air again later, it's worth watching tonight!
"I suspect that the CBP is a little smarter than you give them credit for."
Border council calls Bush plan 'slap in the face'
By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published January 12, 2004
You think that union has your best interests at heart? Any union?
The couincil is a government employees labor union.
RE:"...think that union..."
Yep
Don't attack the messenger, by doing so, one sorta admits their holding a losing position.
Are you a Hillbot?
Unions deserve atacking, in my opinion.
Reagan never let his 'compassion', as you call it, get in the way of his respect for the law, let alone doing what he knew was right. Your appropriation of him here is obscene.
I know a little about the guy, since he was also my governor for 8 years.
So, this has come from a dreaded union member oh my.
Can you please tell us what isn't true in this statement? Regardless of where it came from it's right on the money if you ask me.
"Those who are waiting to sneak in will be allowed to come as 'temporary (yeah, right) guest workers,´" he said. "Well, first they need to find a willing employer who´ll offer them a job at minimum wages after he claims he just can´t find a legal worker to take the job. Then the poor employer is just going to have to go outside the U.S. to find his workers. Those darn Americans just don´t want to work."
Hell of a ping list there.
Typical behavior from bayourod, suprisingly there hasn't been much in the way of "racist" or "xenophobe" yet. Must be frustrating for him when there's millions of illegal aliens to defend; so many threads, so little time.
Some unions are corrupt and ask way too much from companies but on the other hand many of the workers in them are conservatives who consistently vote GOP and will be devastated financially if this guest worker program ever becomes law.
You hear Rush today? Even he says he doesn;t buy the "We need illegals" argument any more. He specifically cited the scaling down of American wages that would follow from importing a huge Third World labor force.
No didn't hear Rush but that's good he's coming around. He has the largest listening audience in the country and I think knows how most of them feel about this issue.
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