Posted on 08/05/2005 1:04:32 PM PDT by Reaganwuzthebest
The president, in a wide-ranging talk, gives a hint at how he'll pitch reform measures
GRAPEVINE - President Bush told a crowd of state legislators Wednesday that he will push immigration reform as beneficial for U.S. employers as well as foreigners looking for work.
He also made an impassioned pitch for Americans to stay behind the war in Iraq.
"Immigration reform is going to be an interesting subject when we get back to Washington" in September, said Bush, who plans to spend this month at his Crawford ranch.
He argued that his proposal for a "guest worker" program is good for employers and illegal immigrants who want a mutually beneficial relationship.
"If you are a willing employer (and) you have somebody looking for work and you can't find an American, there ought to be a legal way for you to employ that person," he said. "We'd rather have people coming in with a card that said, 'I'm a legal worker,' than trying to sneak across the border."
The president has proposed a system under which immigrants would be granted worker temporary worker status, after which they would have to leave the United States. Critics have called it a thinly veiled amnesty program. Immigration reform plans have stalled in Congress so far this year, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist recently suggested a GOP push on the issue was more likely to happen next year.
Talking hours after the first reports that 14 U.S. Marines were killed in Iraq, Bush said, "The violence in recent days in Iraq is a grim reminder of the enemies we face. These terrorists and insurgents will use brutal tactics because they're trying to shake the will of the United States of America."
With polls showing that public support for continued military involvement in Iraq is eroding in the face of steady casualties, Bush relied on a familiar linkage of the war with the larger struggle against terrorism. He said Americans who died in Iraq and Afghanistan "lost their lives in a noble cause."
Speaking to 1,800 people at the American Legislative Exchange Council conference, Bush basked in recent legislative victories delivered by a GOP majority in Congress, including the Central American Free Trade Agreement and energy and highways legislation.
Bush said his priorities when Congress reconvenes after Labor Day will be immigration reform, making his tax cuts permanent, getting Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts confirmed and resurrecting his Social Security reform initiative.
Bush drew loud cheers by saying he strongly believed in private retirement accounts for workers under 55. "Now is the time to permanently fix Social Security," he said.
The event was held at a mammoth convention center where visiting legislators were introduced to Texas pride, including a large replica of the Alamo, a 10-foot-long space shuttle model and other state symbols.
I don't understand how the president can talk up this ("non-amnesty") amnesty plan and then segue into the subject of national security, as he did in this speech.(http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/08/20050803.html) How can he talk about national security without talking about a wall at our southern border? How can his administration cut back the allotment of 2,000 new BP agents per year to a mere 150? It's just the worst kind of doublespeak.
The administration has tried different ways to spin this "guest worker" vs. border security vs. sovereignty several different ways, each presentation more awkward sounding than the last.
I think each time he mentions it is a trial balloon to see what the reaction is. I feel strongly that Congress will do nothing on immigration/illegals/the border this year or even next; they'll just wait and wait, talk about it from time to time, and let it get worse.
I understand our need to be friends with our neighbors, because of the threats of China and islamic terrorism, but we are only friends to Mexico and they are not friends to us. I wonder if Vicente Fox is secretly threatening the U.S., holding a potential alliance with China over our heads...?
Nice map
The Kissingerian approach: "Nations don't have friends, only interests"
"If you are a willing employer (and) you have somebody looking for work and you can't find an American, there ought to be a legal way for you to employ that person," he said.
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Right - I wonder if any other country's freely elected leader has ever spit on his own workers like President Bush has?
....You can't find an American? So know its if you can't find an American. Well hey, maybe that is an improvement, fore how many employers will not be able to "find an American". Its not that hard, unless of course he means those employers who are sitting in Indonesia.
I've read the article a couple of times and nowehere does Bush say anything about "Indian and Chinese programmers and doctors".
He did specifically mention "trying to sneak across the border".
The article specifically stated, "The president has proposed a system under which immigrants would be granted worker temporary worker status, after which they would have to leave the United States."
The only fault I find there is that the press has totally perverted the meaning of the word "immigrant". Otherwise, it seems a logical way to get the tens of thousands of produce pickers that we use each year.
It seems that the arguments against Bush are boiling down to:
"Bush does not mean what he himself is saying. Bush means what I say that he means."
Right, they have the gall to tell us, to PROMISE US... "oh yeah, we're going to get hit again", meantime they don't seem to do jack about it, don't tell US what to do about it, don't LET us do jack about it ourselves... there's a malaise, a cancer in this society. It's killing us.
I still think Presidente Fox has 35 year-old photos of a drunken GWB doing the Tijuana donkey act...
That's the only explanation that makes (political) sense. The agri/construction/hospitality lobbies can't have that much pull on him.
Geez.
Does anyone really believe even one illegal alien would ever leave the United States?
Who are the thousands of law enforcement personnel who are going to round up the millions of "temporary workers" and send them home when the time comes?
This is more of Bush's insane open borders policy to please big business which continues to illegally hire millions of illegals.
Good Grief!!
My Daddy never drank Manhattans between Memorial day and Labor day. That was Martini season. After Labor Day, the Gin bottle (always gin, no vodka for Dad - Beefeaters) was put away and out came the bourbon, the vermouth, the bitters, and the simple syrup, and it was Manhattans until next summer. No variations or deviations. Not that he wouldn't drink beer or wine. But when it came to cocktails, that was the iron clad rule. I hadn't thought about that in a long time. That was a different America.
Sheesh, what part of "illegal" doesn't the President understand??!! His and Mr. Rove's 'strategic' policy and that of his predessors in the White House so abruptly and rudely slaps all the LEGAL IMMIGRANTS in the face who are here on our soil, and essentially tells theme they were saps for wasting time, patience and fees to go through legal lines and channels. When will we stop rewarding ILLEGAL BEHAVIOR??
1. Establish what "guest workers" we actually need or do not need in agricultural and non-agricultural sectors.
2. Write the quotas of the law to reflect those needs.
3. Isuue the Guest Worker Program legal permits.
4. Allow a 90 day amnesty period for all ilegal workers who did not get a permit to leave the U.S. without any legal consequences.
5. Ninety days after the Guest Worker Program is enacted , have surprise, random inspections of businesses by Federal law enforcement agencies which would require documentation of a legal Guest Worker permit or Green Card or proof of U.S. citizenship for all workers.
6. Illegal workers would be deported.
7. Employers would be subject to a $50,000 fine and/or 30 days in jail for every illegal worker discovered.
That's what I would do.
You heard it here FIRST, from this CONSERVATIVE AMERICAN.
I am a Bush fan but not on his border policy, thanks very much. I do not want to be "equal" to a third world country, if they want to be equal to MY country then they can damn well work for it in THEIR country and not try to ride in on my back and the backs of other hard working Americans.
- President Theodore Roosevelt, 1908
Two things: 1. you are kidding yourself if you think this won't apply to high pay professions and 2. once the anchor baby is dropped there is no leaving.
There has to be a stop put to it, to this nonsense of illegal aliens streaming across the US borders, and now in nearly every US state.
In other words, it's getting harder and harder for them to deny that what Bush is really after amounts to a slap-on-the-wrist amnesty. All lawbreakers to be penalized (rewarded) equally.
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