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.
Bush is FOS on this issue. I pray for the day Roe is overturned because that very day will be the end of the republicans because those that are conservative and love this country will bolt the pubbies (aka dem lite).
I think they have to, but their feet are being held to the fire by business groups, which are grimly determined to break U.S. wages permanently and bottomlessly. Business guys think they can get on top of wages for as far as the eye can see, and I think they are demanding the GOP go for it on both wages (immigration) and taxes -- they evidently must think that if they can just get over, the Democrats will never be able to undo the damage business can do to "move-up" wages by sapping the lower end of the wage scale with an uncontrolled flood of illegals.
The Japanese military used to call this "breaking the jewel" -- destructive use of a military formation or unit. That is what the business clerisy appears to be doing with the GOP.
Maybe they think that if they destroy the GOP in the process, it'll be no big deal, because then they'll be rich enough to go out and buy a new political party.
Right. It's not all government-subsidized "cheap" labor for U.S. business. Lots of do-gooders as well as globalists, both Republicans and New Democrat Third Way "progressives," have committed the U.S. to "raising everyone's boat" and remittances are very important to developing countries.
It seems to me that the amnesty argument that tends to dominate is mute and proponents of migrant labor (ILLEGAL or "guest") know it and have no plans for amnesty -- but the issue obscures their real purpose. To wit, transferring wealth to developing countries. For world peace, I guess.
Quote: here we go. President Hillary Clinton/2008 is one step closer.
Yep. he continues to p**s on the american worker.
Steve Levy. many Dems want him out of the party. every hispanic member of some advisory committee the Dems had out there, resigned.
Never were truer words spoken!
"The Easter Bunny will get elected President before the U.S. Government gets tough and deports the so-called "immigrants who are trying to feed their poor families".
Bush's Guest Worker Program has a five year residence permittence. That alone sinks it as far as I am concerned. Get out of America and apply to re-enter is the only terms that I believe in. Harsh? Yes, but you are a criminal if you snuck under the fence.
Right now, the biggest obstacle we have in enforcing laws is the bleeding-heart liberal population and media wailing like a Greek chorus about the "poor immigrants trying to feed their families in the only way they can".
That, and the lobbyists need for the foreign labor in certain sectors is why Congressmen look the other way.
The Guest Worker Program attacks both of these issues.
"The poor 'immigrants' trying to feed their families" can do it by applying for a Guest Worker spot.
The liberal whining can be countered by pointing out that illegals would be cheating "the poor Guest Workers trying to feed their families".
The Guest Workers with permits would not appreciate illegals and will protect their turf by calling the 1-800-YOU-FINK hot-line set up by INS.
The businesses that need the workers will get them and avoid illegals lest they be squealed on by the legit Guest Workers.
The alternative is the anarchy we have now.
Yeah, right.
</sarc>
Been there, done that -- back in 1986, remember? We were gonna get tough with people who employed illegals back then, too, remember?
Right now, the Government has a Catch 22 because some of the illegal immigrant laborers are need and there are no legal replacements.
That statement is correct, if you add the qualifying phrase, "at the kind of wages that are popular with sweatshop employers in Manila, Canton, and Guam."
check out this exchange in an article about this, I note his comments, and the Mexican consulate, and I ask - whose side is President Bush on as you read these?
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3297205
"Many local officials have punted, saying this is a federal issue and we can't do anything about it. Well, there are some things you can do," Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy said. "Crack down on those contractors, crack down on illegal housing and create a better relationship with immigration officials."
Levy complained that it is the Mexican government's "failed policies, both economically and otherwise," that have been pushing millions of its residents over the border.
Arturo Sarukhan, head of the Mexican Consulate in New York City, agreed that Mexico needs to solve its economic problems so that its citizens do not leave for a better life in America. But he said officials on Long Island must realize that the day laborers are here to stay.
"At the end of the day, they may or may not like it, but it is the reality," he said.
But doesn't "residence" mean that, after that time period expires, they either "re-up" or go back to Mexico?
As I understand it, the program does not lead to a Green Card.
Quote: How many U.S. citizens are picking produce in California's Central Valley?
You really don't have a clue do you? These illegals are taking construction jobs and in jobs in factories.
You probably live in a gated community.
And it never happened because certain labor needs were not met and lobyists bribed Congressmen to look the other way so they could have their cabbage pickers.
Unless you have a system where the Guest Workers are limited to clearly defined sectors, you will have lobbyists bribing Congress to continue to look the other way about the border and we will continue to have illegal aliens flooding ALL blue collar sectors.
"I'm beginning to fear that Bush is really another of the "One World" nuts. His failure to secure the borders and continued harping for the "guest worker" program really pisses me off."
Well its finally sinking in. How many times do you other Bush supporters need to be smacked against the head before you get it. Guest worker = amnesty, plain and simple. DO NOT BUY INTO ANY CRUMBS BUSH THROWS AT US NOW TO "STEM THE TIDE OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION"
These immigrants are not going home, nor are they going to assimilate. The phony documentation they can obtain today can fool even the most trained eye. They don't pay taxes, they readily accept corruption, they drain our social services, they bring a third world uneducated population that does not want to assimilate into the american culture, they bring a disproportionate amount of crime, etc..... The shrinking middle class of America is being asked to burden the economic and social cost of this travesty.
Vote Tancredo or the constitution party before it is to late.
It was very good.
As I wrote earlier, immigration law enforcement.......
".........never happened because certain labor needs were not met and lobyists bribed Congressmen to look the other way so they could have their cabbage pickers.......... Unless you have a system where the Guest Workers are limited to clearly defined sectors, you will have lobbyists bribing Congress to continue to look the other way about the border and we will continue to have illegal aliens flooding ALL blue collar sectors."
My position was outlined in Post 193.
**************
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.
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