Republicans Squaring Off Over Bush Plan on Immigration

NY Times ^ | January 27, 2005 | DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

[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

[snowman1]

You sound like a full fledged SKERRY demoRAT. Go back to the DU.

[Teplukin]

Criticism of Preident Bush is a terrible thing! What the heck is the matter with you?

HOnestly, these summer patriots at Free Republic are stating to really get my goat!

[rottndog]

No, no rats here. Just someone willing to put down the kool-aid and criticize the party leader when he needs criticizing.

[GodfearingTexan]

the problem that i see with this is that as soon as they are authorized guest workers, supposedly here just to do the jobs we wont do, they are going to start taking better paying jobs for far less money. how do we tell them: "ok, but you cant take any GOOD jobs!"?

and thats just the beginning of the problem.

[dzzrtrock]

~~~~~~~and I heard today that Feinstein above all people is bringing up a bill that will reimburse Cal from the 500 million to 1 billion for illegal alien prisoners etc. bout time we get more money back from the feds for the money we pour into illegals.~~~~~~

She'll just pour it back into social programs for the illegals we're supporting through welfare, school food prgorams, section 8 housing, etc. "We the people" will never see a penny of it.

[goldstategop]

Corporate America would love to have a taxpayer-subsized low wage force. One which doesn't pay Social Security, income or payroll taxes. For them its a dream come true. Its the ultimate in out-sourcing, right here at home. The only spoiler in the dream is our hard-pressed middle class will foot the bill for this illegal alien cheap labor pool in the form of higher taxes, crowded schools, overstressed social services, deteriorating infrastructure, environmental damage, and increased exposure to terrorism. We don't hear Corporate America and its Open Borders Lobby friends in both parties mention this dark side of the picture to the public. But it exists and concern that corporations are putting greed ahead of the country's national interests isn't only of concern to Democrats and paleo-conservatives. Every American is affected by illegal immigration and unless we do something to address the problem - its only going to get worse. You don't cure the disease by killing the patient.

Denny Crane: "I want two things: First God and then Fox News."

[bayourod]

"Immigrants are an asset, however, tens of millions of ILLEGAL immigrants are an unsustainably crushing burden. "

How do you determine when there are too many to be sustainable? Our total population last year only rose 1% last year, including illegal immigrants.

Labor is already tight with unemployment below average and shortages existing in both geographical and industrial sectors.

If we don't increase the labor pool in the country we could face serious shortages in the near future.

[snowman1]

This thing has been going on for so long that noone wants to place the blame. The wetbacks have been coming across the border sinc forever it only got really bad when the LIBERALS got a chance to give them rights they never deserved, and the courts have made it even worse.

[GodfearingTexan]

bayourod, as i heard someone say before, when was the last time you drove down the highway and thought, i wish there were more cars on the road...? i dont think our unemployment is too low. id say its pretty close to being right on. and 1% of 281M people is still a lot considering the long term.

[kenth]

It's not as if he's reneging on a pledge. He's doing exactly what he said he'd do, push for his guest worker plan.

[Missouri]

Sounding more like a Democrat every day.

The Democrats are on the Presidents side on this issue. GWB is depending on them and they will deliver if this ever comes to a vote to the full House and Senate.

The Democrats are your allies on this matter.

[Reaganwuzthebest]

At a news conference, he said the committee would not consider other immigration proposals, implicitly including the president's, until his own measure passed.

Bush's plan shouldn't be considered period. If that turkey ever becomes law the American nation as we've known it will be gone forever.

[goldstategop]

Congress has other priorities. The President could say in the past he needed this or he needed that to get re-elected. He no longer has that trump card. Conservatives have long-stalled favorites they want to see become law. We'll never get another chance like this again for a long time to make good on our agenda.

Denny Crane: "I want two things: First God and then Fox News."

[Missouri]

If we don't increase the labor pool in the country we could face serious shortages in the near future.

Lets just increase the amount of Asian women into the country. We might get a few more Michelle Malkins.

[ETERNAL WARMING]

Attention Moron: We don't want your stinking guestworker program and we're not going to stand for it! Do you really think we want to go thru the rest of our lives paying high taxes to subsidize your donor's cheap labor? Think again.

[Missouri]

Ping.

[bayourod]

"To a patriot, some things are more important than labor shortages. "

What's more important than a healthy economy? What threat do you perceive from immigrant laborers that outweigh providing the necessities for your family?

Most of the animosity toward immigrant laborers comes from people complaining that they are driving down wages---not any bumper sticker phony "patriot" slogan. If it's not economics for you what is it?

[NRA2BFree]

The only reason the anti-immigrants want to deny drivers' licenses to illegals is they think that will give citizens a competitive advantage in the job competition.

THAT'S a ridiculous statement. A driver's license will put them on the streets behind the wheel of a car, resulting in MANY more accidents. Most of them will NOT purchase auto insurance, even though it's required by law. THAT is going to result in OUR insurance premiums going WAY up. More accidents will result in more of them going to the hospital for treatment. THAT is going to break our hospitals, who in turn will pass on the increases to US. DWI'S are going to soar. It's going to tax our police, fire, and rescue, who are in turn going to need additional people to meet the huge increase of accidents. THAT will be passed on to the taxpayers too. Illegals cannot read English which means they will NOT know OUR laws, therefore, they will break them all, and they won't care. The reason they won't care is because they broke the first law in America when they entered into the country illegally, and they got away with it. In fact, they were rewarded for it. They will NEVER have respect for our laws. I could go on with MANY other ways that it is going to harm Americans, but is it REALLY necessary?

[rottndog]

One of the biggest problems with increasing the labor pool via illegal immigration is that this tremendously increases the demand on public services and infrastructure without increasing the tax base(illegals primarily work under the table and pay very little in taxes). It is actually decreasing the tax base (more tax dependents per taxpayer). This is in addition to the fact that an endless supply of cheap labor drives down real wages across the board, which further hurts those of us who really have to pick up the tab.

When emergency rooms and trauma centers are closing left and right because of unpaid bills by ILLEGAL ALIENS, the number if Illegals are unsustainable (one example of many).