There's the plan. Any questions?
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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Nice graphic!
Thanks much for the kind words!
I made it. :o)
"Republicans are about to head in the opposite direction with legislation to crack down on undocumented immigrants and companies that employ them"
Will GWB complete the alienation of conservatives when he finally breaks out his veto pen when/if this legislation comes before him? That we don't know speaks volumes.
"You put the CEO (and possibly other EOs and managers) in prison. What's so hard about that?"
Sort of like Sarbanes-Oxley for HR Managers........
There's the plan. Any questions?
Now THAT'S what I'm talking about! Make it practically impossible for these illegals to find work, and they'll deport themselves!
Really? And what would unions do to improve the situation?
And you do know that Reagan gave us the first illegal amnesty, right?
I'm afraid the reference is arcane to me but I expect it is good humor to those who are informed.
Yep, he gave us the first and he thought the last amnesty, then he initiated laws like the I-9 to make sure illegals would never again work in the US without proper authorization. A great law, and stupid lawmakers after that who never did enforce the law.
If government did not give itself the power to restrict immigration, a private company could hire who they wanted to and pay them what they wanted to to work on their factory/farm here in the US.
However, government has given itself the power to block immigration. Government has gotten BIGGER to do so. That is my point.
By preventing companies from bringing workers here government is:
1. Stopping the brain drain that brings the best, brightest and most productive to the US. Now, foreign competitors will hire them, hurting the competitiveness of American companies.
2. Encouraging American companies to move THERE instead of having them come here (or, at minimum, outsource portions of work there). This results in less jobs for Americans and less prosperity here.
By expanding government in the name of preventing 'American job loss', government actually does the exact opposite and increases American job loss. This happens with Liberalism all the time (poverty measures increase poverty rather than help it etc.. etc..) but for some reason, some Conservatives seem to support clamping down on immigration, even though we should be proud to be a nation of immigrants and it was Ronald Reagan who said:
I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace, a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still.
And how stand the city on this winter night? More prosperous, more secure, and happier than it was eight years ago. But more than that; after two hundred years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm. And she's still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home.
"I'm afraid the reference is arcane to me"
Sarbanes-Oxley is a set of corporate financial controls to (attempt) make sure that another Enron or Worldcom doesn't occur. Chief Financial Officers must certify, under penalty of perjury that financial numbers are legit, or they could go to jail
In this case, getting HR managers to do the same sort of thing - certify all their employees are in fact legally entitled to work in this country - under penalty of perjury would be an interesting idea.......
Darn that big government. It has the potential to stop the open-border lobby from turning every American city into a big shining Tegucigalpa, Mexico City or Lagos on a hill.
Plus it may ruin children's chance to live in a wind-swept, God-blessed land teeming with...600 million people - or to realize their full potential as worshipers in a Spanish-language mosque.
I seem to recall reading that 80,000+ Americans, taxpayers with legitimate SS numbers, families in the U.S., current inoculations, and the ability to speak decent English are out of work do to the recent storms.
How about we give THEM those jobs "most Americans won't do", many of which pay better than their old jobs, instead of welfare?
The invaders have had a taste of life in a (comparatively) corruption free society, send them back to implement what they have learned in their home country!
And make damn sure the U.S. does not intervene to support the current regimes when the overdue revolutions begin.
So, What are we going to do? Leave this terrible problem as it is now?
As usual, the problem is less about a lack of applicable law than it is "selective enforcement" or a complete abandonment of all enforcement!
If one thinks that Bush is tossing in the towel on this issue truly doesn't understand the depth of his level of comittment to getting this done, one way or another. I would suggest that one not be surprised to wake up one day in the not too distant future and astonishingly find that this has been advancing as a backdoor stealth plan that pops up its ugly head and gets passed in some form or another with little or no public debate.
By the time most people realizes what has happened it will be too late I'm afraid. I hope I'm wrong but one thing I've learned about this administration is that there is no depth to which they will stoop to get what they want out of congress and congress has become so addicted to their pork-fixs that the WH promises them in return to get what they want.
But, but, more laws create the false impression that congress is "DOING SOMETHING" about their constituents concerns!
You want them to do "Something" substantial, like enforcing existing laws?
How intolerant and divisive of you!
(Yea, there's some sarcasm above)
Your impression of Union's is out of date!
They now crave illegals over citizens, the illegals do anything the Union boss's want, voting the way they are told, giving the Unions even more money and power over them. Apparently the illegals LIKE being treated as serf's.
Legal American workers tend to demand that Unions make at least some effort to actually benefit the workers, and refuse to give the Union's total dominion over them.
The Union's are now among the biggest enthusiast in favor of unlimited "immigration".
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