Posted on 10/16/2005 11:43:28 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
WASHINGTON President Bush's ambitious plan to give millions of undocumented immigrants a shot at legal temporary work in the United States is dead in Congress.
Two hurricanes, two Supreme Court nominees, Republican in-fighting and the president's own slump in the polls have put Bush's "guest worker" initiative on the shelf for this year.
Instead of rallying behind the Bush temporary worker proposal, conservative Republicans are about to head in the opposite direction with legislation to crack down on undocumented immigrants and companies that employ them.
"Political momentum has changed in our favor," said Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., who leads a group of more than 80 House lawmakers who generally oppose expanding immigration.
Conservative Republicans have vowed to block any initiative that would give work visas to immigrants in the country illegally even if the permits are good only temporarily.
In any case, lawmakers say they are just too busy to pay any attention to the Bush proposal.
"I think Katrina and Rita knocked it off the fall Senate calendar," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who is sponsoring a bill modeled after Bush's guest worker initiative. "Given the crunch caused by two Supreme Court nominations, and Katrina and Rita, it's looking like January" will be the earliest the Senate will consider comprehensive immigration bills, Cornyn said.
But in 2006 an election year many Republicans won't be eager to wade into a contentious fight over immigration while also confronting rising gas prices and growing concerns over the war in Iraq.
The administration's guest worker proposal is the latest item on Bush's second-term agenda to go on life-support, joining now-stalled plans to overhaul the tax code and the Social Security system.
For Bush, the immigration debate is personal. He confronted the issue head-on as governor of Texas, which contains much of the nation's roughly 2,000-mile-long border with Mexico.
As governor, he also developed a friendship with Mexican President Vicente Fox.
As president, Bush has made revamping the nation's immigration laws a priority as part of Republican efforts to court the nation's Hispanic voters.
Corporate America particularly agricultural businesses and the service industry also has pleaded for a way to legally hire more foreign workers.
When Bush outlined his broad vision for rewriting the nation's immigration laws in 2004, the president said he wanted qualified undocumented immigrants to get temporary work visas that would be good, initially, for three years and possibly renewable for a total of six.
Bush said his initiative was designed to "allow willing workers to enter our country and fill jobs that Americans are not filling."
But the vague proposal Bush said he was leaving the details up to Congress immediately provoked widespread criticism from the left and the right.
Conservative Republicans said the president's plan would reward lawbreakers who had crossed U.S. borders illegally.
Democrats complained the initiative would give more than 10 million undocumented immigrants false hope by encouraging them to come out of hiding and seek visas guaranteeing them a one-way ticket home after six years.
The debate was so polarizing that Bush largely stopped talking about the issue altogether. But now, conservative Republicans driven by the complaints of angry constituents who say the nation's borders are under siege are preparing to push legislation focusing on stepping up the enforcement of immigration laws.
They say the federal government isn't doing enough to stanch the flow of immigrants across the nation's borders, leading some state and local government officials to take matters into their own hands.
In recent months, Arizona and New Mexico have declared states of emergency, citing the high costs of a surge in immigrants illegally crossing.
Hundreds of people have signed up as "Minutemen," voluntarily patrolling the Arizona-Mexico border.
Similar groups in Texas and California have recruited members to scout for undocumented immigrants.
"We have lost control of our borders and endangered the lives of Americans by not enforcing immigration laws," said Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio.
In Congress, proposals to revamp immigration laws range from those that would make it easier for undocumented immigrants to become residents to plans to seal off the borders altogether. Among them:
Legislation by Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz., dubbed the "enforcement first" proposal, which would impose stiffer sanctions on companies that employ undocumented immigrants.
Under his bill, companies could face up to five years in jail and fines of up to $50,000 for each undocumented worker. His legislation also would end the practice of granting citizenship to any child born in the United States, unless at least one parent is in the country legally.
A proposal being drafted by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., who heads the powerful House Judiciary Committee. His legislation also is expected to focus heavily on enforcement.
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You seem to have forgotten about the terrotists!
We're being invaded by invading hordes from the south.
You obviously don't care.
You're part of America's problem.
Iraq and Afghanistan and Kosovo didnt attack us either. But our military is still there, protecting us.
No one's property is being stolen or destroyed. Tell that to some of the people on this forum who live on the southern border, in a virtual war zone 24/7. Then check out some of the photos that have been posted here and all over the internet of the diseased garbage, human waste that is spread over hundreds of miles of private land and protected public lands. 95% of the murder warrants for Los Angeles are illegal aliens. If this isnt destruction tell us what is?
As always, when government has the power to do something it corrupts and twists that power for political gain and the immigration laws and standards are being constantly revised and changed by politicians of all stripes in response to donations/favors by various domestic and foreign interests and according to whatever popular whim happens to be fashionable among the people.
You got that part right. People should have read, the people with undue influence. Illegal immigration holds no fashionable meaning to the people any longer. Just ask us.
This article is good news, but only a temporary respite. We must not relax the pressure on congress. If they even get a hint that we are easing off, they will go back to the same old crap.
No money until the borders are secure.
BUMP
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
Support our Minutemen Patriots!
Be Ever Vigilant ~ Bump!
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
Support our Minutemen Patriots!
Be Ever Vigilant ~ Bump!
I received a survey from the National Senatorial Committee asking me to fill it out and then send money. One of the questions was what was the most important issue of the day to me. It did not list immigration. I wrote in Red that immigration was the most important and to CLOSE THE BORDER. I hope you don't mind that I copied your peso, printed it out and included it in with the survey. I sent it all back to them in their pre-paid envelope.
Thank you for informing me on that. I didn't follow those corporate scandal stories...too much MSM/lib spin, too many other subjects to stay current with. (That's my excuse anyway.)
I'm going to have to reveal further ignorance and mental dullness on my part and ask you what "HR" is an acronym for. All I could come up with is House Republican and I don't think that's right. Now my brain has acronym-lock.
Your arguement is allready dead. The enforcement of borders and trade for that matter is written inthe constitution, somthing that "free" marketers do not want to understand.
Your arguement is allready dead. The enforcement of borders and trade for that matter is written inthe constitution, somthing that "free" marketers do not want to understand.
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Did you know the US government used to take our advertisments in European nations to try to get more people to come to the US?
The Constitution was a freemarket document. I suggest you read some quotes by our founding fathers, such as this one:
Let the general government be reduced to foreign concerns only, and let our affairs be disentangled from those of all other nations, except as to commerce, which the merchants will manage the better, the more they are left free to manage for themselves, and our general government may be reduced to a very simple organization, & a very unexpensive one; a few plain duties to be performed by a few servants.
-Thomas Jefferson
If we had to classify our founding fathers they would nearly all be libertarians.
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