Radio Address by the President to the Nation, 10-22-05

WhiteHouse.gov ^ | 10-22-05 | George W. Bush

[Salvation]

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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
October 22, 2005

President's Radio Address

     Audio
     In Focus: Homeland Security
     

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. This week I signed into law a bill that supports our ongoing efforts to defend our homeland.

To defend this country, we have to enforce our borders. When our borders are not secure, terrorists, drug dealers, and criminals find it easier to sneak into America. My administration has a clear strategy for dealing with this problem: We want to stop people from crossing into America illegally, and to quickly return the illegal immigrants we catch back to their home countries.

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For the past four years, we've been implementing this strategy. To stop illegal immigrants from coming across our borders, we've added manpower, upgraded our technology, and taken the final steps necessary to complete a 14-mile barrier running along the San Diego border with Mexico. To enforce our immigration laws within our borders, we've hired more immigration agents, gone after criminal gangs, and targeted smugglers and coyotes who traffic in human beings. We are getting results: Since 2001, we have removed more than 4.8 million illegal immigrants from the United States, including more than 300,000 with criminal records.

Our border patrol and immigration agents are doing a fine job, but we still have a problem. Too many illegal immigrants are coming in, and we're capturing many more non-Mexican illegal immigrants than we can send home. And one of the biggest reasons we cannot send them back is that we lack space in our detention facilities to hold them until they are removed. When there's no bed available, non-Mexicans who are caught entering our country illegally are given a slip that tells them to come back for a court appearance. Most never show up. And then they disappear back into the shadows of our communities. This is called "catch-and-release," and it is unacceptable.

The bill I signed includes $7.5 billion that will help us address the problem of illegal immigration in two important ways. First, it provides more than $2.3 billion for the Border Patrol so we can keep more illegal immigrants from getting into the country in the first place. These funds will help us hire a thousand new border patrol agents, improve our technology and intelligence, expand and improve Border Patrol stations, and install and improve fencing, lighting, vehicle barriers, and roads along our border areas. I appreciate the help Congress has given us for our common goal of creating more secure borders.

Second, this bill also provides $3.7 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement so we can find and return the illegal immigrants who are entering our country. With these funds, we can expand the holding capacity of our detention facilities by 10 percent. This will allow us to hold more non-Mexican illegal immigrants while we process them through a program we call "expedited removal." This will make the process faster and more efficient. Putting more non-Mexican illegal immigrants through expedited removal is crucial to sending back people who have come here illegally. As Secretary Chertoff told the Senate this week, our goal is to return every single illegal entrant, with no exceptions. And this bill puts us on the path to do that.

For Mexicans who cross into America illegally, we have a different plan, but the same goal. Now, most of the 900,000 illegal immigrants from Mexico who are caught each year are immediately escorted back across the border. The problem is that these illegal immigrants are able to connect with another smuggler or coyote and come right back in. So one part of the solution is a program called "interior repatriation" where we fly or bus these illegal immigrants all the way back to their hometowns in the interior of Mexico. By returning illegal Mexican immigrants to their homes, far away from desert crossings, we're saving lives and making it more difficult for them to turn right around and cross back into America.

As we improve and expand our efforts to secure our borders, we must also recognize that enforcement cannot work unless it's part of a comprehensive immigration reform that includes a temporary worker program. If an employer has a job that no American is willing to take, we need to find a way to fill that demand by matching willing employers with willing workers from foreign countries on a temporary and legal basis. I'll work with members of Congress to create a program that will provide for our economy's labor needs without harming American workers, and without granting amnesty, and that will relieve pressure on our borders.

A critical part of any temporary worker program is ensuring that our immigration laws are enforced at work sites. America is a country of laws; we must not allow dishonest employers to flout those laws. So we've doubled the resources for work site enforcement since 2004.

We have much more work ahead of us. But the Homeland Security bill I signed this week provides vital support for our efforts to deal with the problem of illegal immigration, and make all Americans safer and more secure.

Thank you for listening.

END

[calrighty]

Posted by NormsRevenge
On 10/22/2005 10:35:26 AM PDT · 25 replies · 182+ views

North County Times ^ | 10/22/05 | WILLIAM FINN BENNETT
When it comes to cracking down on companies that hire illegal immigrants, the federal government appears to be missing in action, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office. Between fiscal year 1999 and fiscal year 2003, the report shows that the number of work-site arrests in the United States by government immigration agents fell by 83 percent, dropping from 2,849 arrests in 1999, to 485 in 2003, the last year for which Immigration and Customs Enforcement provided data to the accountability office. Another indicator of the downward trend revealed in the report was the number of employers...

[Reaganwuzthebest]

Remember the discussions about amnesty and matching "willing workers with willing employers? Did you take note when he crumpled the Davis-Bacon law in Louisiana and cut the wage levels?

That was the plan all along, cut the wage levels and let illegals take the jobs. Now he wants to do this to the entire country and in every sector of the economy. The question is: will the GOP Congress let him?

[WatchingInAmazement]

I would be more willing to praise the President if I thought he was sincere. But in truth, he was against this legislation and Congress had to stuff it down his throat. His budget only requested 200 new Border Patrol agents.

You are correct and it's documented here on FR for anyone who wants to bother checking it out. He flat refused to consider these remedies when Sensenbrenner introduced them in the intelligence bill. It was a full fledged attack by the administration and the senate to keep them out. Remember? Byrd and Inhofe were the only two to vote for them in the senate on the first round.

[jackbenimble]

In 2004 the number of employers who were actually fined for hiring illegal immigrants was ZERO!!. Apparently the Administration couldn't find any employers engaged in this illegal practice.

[nothingnew]

...his failure to enforce any of our immigration laws against employers convinces me that he has no intention of sincerely enforcing our laws.

That's it in a nutshell. Bottom line..."You might have to pay $5.00 a head for crummy iceberg lettuce!"...oh well, I for one do not care.

Start prosecuting those that illigally hire the illegals and this BS will stop.

BTW, this country, this "Republic", is going down the toilet faster than shiite through a goose.

Search on CFR in the engine and see what is being, has been planned, for a long time now............Hey, can you speak Spanish, Mexican, French, Quebecian?

What a rabbit hole we are in for...

FMCDH(BITS)

[NRA2BFree]

To defend this country, we have to enforce our borders. When our borders are not secure, terrorists, drug dealers, and criminals find it easier to sneak into America. My administration has a clear strategy for dealing with this problem: We want to stop people from crossing into America illegally, and to quickly return the illegal immigrants we catch back to their home countries.

El Presidente Jorge is preaching to the choir. WE have KNOWN and been CONCERNED sine 9-11. The ONLY reason he's doing this now is because he has lost the support of many party faithfuls over his inaction on the borders. It may be too little too late. You can't close the door AFTER the fox is already in the hen house! The damage is already done! The fox can pick off the chickens as he gets hungry for a long time.

[calrighty]

"In 2004 the number of employers who were actually fined for hiring illegal immigrants was ZERO!!. Apparently the Administration couldn't find any employers engaged in this illegal practice."

Funny, I can find 20+ employers and thousands of illegal employees within a 4 miles radius of my office. : )

[B4Ranch]

The GOP Congress has let him so far. that is why I am promoting a total House cleaning. Replace everyone of them because not a one is sincere in obeying their Oath of Office!

[Reaganwuzthebest]

The GOP Congress has let him so far. that is why I am promoting a total House cleaning

It may come to that, this open borders policy is killing us.

[Gondring]

Maybe the knee jerk Bush critics might actually find out some facts at least ONE time? Just ONE time instead of the usual mindless knee jerk rants?

...and perhaps you can learn what a winky smiley means, MNJohnnie!

But in any case, no knee-jerk here. This is, straightforward, more smoke-and-mirrors from an administration that is determined to kill any positive legacy it might have been building. A nod to silence critics is disingenuous.

Da Prez spake thus: If an employer has a job that no American is willing to take, we need to find a way to fill that demand by matching willing employers with willing workers from foreign countries on a temporary and legal basis.

This indicates quite clearly that President Bush has either no understanding or no respoect for the market that has made our country great. I would like him to name a few of these jobs that Americans wouldn't do.

If nobody can be found at a given wage, that doesn't mean workers couldn't be found at a higher wage. The market would demand a raise in wages, which would translate to a raise in wages to other careers, too. Of course prices would increase with the wages, but flooding the market with external labor is not the necessity he claims.

He's practicing a stealth version of Central Planning, rather than allowing wages to adjust to the American market. (In sectors competing internationally, then perhaps Americans will have to compete with international wages.)

If he were serious about things, a fence and stronger enforcement would be the proposal... Catch-and-release (or catch-and-remove, or catch-and-return, whatever smoke you wish to blow) is for fish... How about an ounce of prevention?

[melancholy]

We will not put illegals in prison, too many of them, cost, court, police, etc. We’re not going to seal the borders either, too much politics as usual. Do what you see fit in the voting both.

Here is an idea that I expanded to the following little manual:

All arrested illegals and their families should be put on charter jets, flown to the capitals of their home countries and bye.

The cost of such an operation, including but is not limited to, police & court hours, lawyers, first class hotel accommodations/room service till flight time, transportation cost, etc. should be doubled and charged to the company which employed them. The company has to pay the bill in 30 business days or face extra financial penalties and closure. The management will get a strike-one warning.

If the same company commits the same offence, quadruple the cost and halve the time to pay the bill in 15 business days. This second strike is the right time when managers will face charges and jail sentences.

Third time,..............Carry on, you know the drill.

LE agencies should hire top lawyers to sue the offending companies and insure winning the LE cases quickly against taxpayer-paid public defenders. After all, the offending companies will pay lawyers’ fees for this luxury.

The above solution will solve the illegal immigration problem by dealing with its roots and relieving the taxpayers’ burden:

1. No tax burden. After paying expenses, the rest of the money should go in the public coffers to reduce property taxes, hire more police and border guards.

2. The law is on our side therefore; enforcement of existing laws does not require any interference from activist courts like the 9 th Circuit or the SCOTUS. If the offending company appeals its meter will continue to run and settling out of court becomes a certainty. If the management doesn’t settle, let them face the shareholders and Wall Street. There will be no more challenges after one such case in which judges couldn’t go against the 14 th Amendment. This will also solve the problem of liberalism infestation, i.e., never being able to change the invented local pro-illegals’ laws (sanctuary cities’ crap) overnight or ever.

3. The demagogues and their MSM allies who charge racism will cease and desist because several arrested illegals will be OTM and could very well be WHITE Westerners, Russians, East Europeans, etc. Everyone will be treated equally; booted out that is.

4. This is an incentive for legal workers (Americans, legal residents, work visa holders, etc.) to report the illegals in order to keep their jobs by simply keeping their employers viable. Legal workers who are afraid of the pro-illegal cabal’s charges of racism will have nothing to fear.

[blackie]

Great speech Mr. President ~ now let's see some action from the congresscritters and bureaucrats!

Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!

Support our Minutemen Patriots!

Be Ever Vigilant ~ Bump!

[MEG33]

Indeed!

[Borax Queen]

Since when has the government EVER done something on a "temporary" basis?

[Buffettfan]

Bush's problems with Rove, Libby and Miers might turn out to be our biggest ally in the immigration battle. Bush desperately need an issue to pull him out of the pathetic slump that he is in. Sealing the borders and deporting all illegal invaders would help secure his legacy. I hope Bush and the republicans realize this.

[antisocial]

Have you seen what Bush's lackey in the senate has done?

Sen. Cornyn is taking "action". Take a look at this one. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:s.02941:

S.2941 Title: A bill to authorize the President to negotiate the creation of a North American Investment Fund to promote economic and infrastructure integration among Canada, Mexico, and the United States, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Sen Cornyn, John [TX]

Latest Major Action: 10/7/2004 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query

(snip)SEC. 3. PURPOSES. The purposes of the Fund shall be-- (1) to promote economic and infrastructure integration among Canada, Mexico, and the United States;

(2) to promote education and economic development in Mexico; and

(3) to reduce the wealth gap between Mexico and Canada, and between Mexico and the United States. SEC. 4. PROJECTS FUNDED.

(a) IN GENERAL- The Fund shall make grants for projects to carry out the purposes described in section 3, including projects--

(1) to construct roads in Mexico to facilitate trade between Mexico and Canada, and Mexico and the United States;

(2) to develop and implement post-secondary education programs in Mexico;

(3) to install telecommunications technologies throughout Mexico; and

(4) to construct other infrastructure that will carry out such purposes.

[HonestConservative]

"to reduce the wealth gap between Mexico and Canada, and between Mexico and the United States. SEC. 4. PROJECTS FUNDED"

Now I'm scared out of what's left of my mind.

Sounds like something Jimmy Carter would approve of.

[Salvation]

I was just going to ping you to this. Great to see you.

[Salvation]

Ping!

[Generarth]

so what are you doing about it nothingnew.