Posted on 11/27/2005 6:17:30 AM PST by Borax Queen
Guest-worker plan to top Monday agenda
Hoping to straddle a fracture in the Republican Party, President Bush is due in Tucson on Monday to promote his border and immigration policies.
The 2:40 p.m. speech at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base is the president's only scheduled stop here.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff are expected to appear with the president at D-M.
With the backing of businesses who need foreign employees, Bush is pushing a guest-worker program that would let undocumented workers obtain three-year work visas. Workers could extend that for another three years, but would then have to return to their home countries for a year to apply for a new work permit.
"Our Border Patrol and immigration agents are doing a fine job, but we still have a problem," Bush said in his Oct. 22 radio address.
"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."
The proposal has alienated many conservative Republicans who feel it gives amnesty to people who have entered the country illegally.
There are an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States.
Competing guest-worker proposals have been introduced in Congress, which is expected to take up the contentious issue early next year:
- Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., support legislation that would allow illegal border crossers to work in the United States for up to six years.
- Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, are backing a plan that would force undocumented workers to first return to their home country to apply for a guest worker permit.
- Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., wants to grant legal status to undocumented workers who have paid taxes and lived in the United States for five years if they pass security checks, pay a $2,000 fine and demonstrate English proficiency.
Rank-and-file Republicans may be less divided on the immigration issue than GOP politicians in Washington, D.C.
An October poll of 807 likely Republican voters found 72 percent supported a plan with increased border security, tougher penalties on employers who hire illegal workers and a temporary worker program in which applicants could gain citizenship if they live crime-free, learn English and pay taxes. GOP pollster Ed Goeas conducted the national survey.
Bush signed a spending bill for Homeland Security last month that includes funding for 1,000 new Border Patrol agents and a 10 percent increase in the holding capacity of detention facilities for border crossers.
Earlier this month, Chertoff unveiled Homeland Security's Secure Border Initiative, which will add 100 deportation officers, 250 criminal investigators and 400 immigration enforcement agents to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The initiative also seeks to eliminate the department's policy of releasing border crossers with a promise to appear in court. Most of these entrants never show up for hearings under the so-called "catch and release" policy.
Tune in to see Bush on TV
-Tucsonans who want to see President Bush during his visit to town Monday will have to turn on their televisions.
Bush's speech at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base will not be open to the public.
"He's not leaving the base, so nothing will be affected as far as road closures," said Officer Lisa Peasley, a Tucson Police Department spokeswoman.
KVOA-TV Channel 4 and KGUN-TV Channel 9 plan to carry Bush's 2:40 p.m. speech live.
President Bush visits Tucson and Divided Gop Ping.
Who exactly are these businesses and what are the jobs that 'need' foreign employees? Can we be more specific? Why is this group so clandestine? Why can't they just admit that they want 'cheap' labor, and quit with the disguised label of 'foreign employees?
I hope that President Bush uses this opportunity, while he is in southern Arizona, to apologize to those of us who live on the border who joined the Minuteman Project. He called us "vigilantes." I want an apology. His malfeasance in office in his refusal to properly secure our borders, especially after 9/11, is what brought the whole Minuteman Project about. We can't leave our border unsecured and the people who live along the border do not wish to suffer from the invasion any longer. To insult those people who stood up and donated their time and money to help secure that border is beyond the pale. Bush needs to reaffirm his duty under Article IV Section 4 of the Constitution and he needs to apologize. It is doubtful that he will do either one. Instead he'll talk about excusing the criminal actions of millions of invaders and providing rewards for breaking and entering our country. His supportive words and actions, to the criminal invaders, will encourage even more to violate the border and destroy my community.
Make me puke, Mr. President. Americans will do any job if paid fairly. You just want cheap labor for the employer and then have the taxpayer subsidize the illegals with food, housing, medical, education....and on and on.
How is it that we "need" foreign workers when we still have able bodied people on Welfare.
How about all those NO displaced people living in fine hotels with nothing to do but watch TV and eat free food. We have the fattest poor people in the world.
No available US workers is BS.
Yes, here I am as compassionate as ever!
I think that's the point. The able-bodied in this country have figured out that they can sit at home and drag a check every month. Meanwhile, farmers in this country cannot find people to bring in their crops. Instead of worrying about this group of people who work their tails off let's worry more about the able bodied who refuse to work. They are far more worthy of our scorn.
HELLO is ANYONE HOME in DC??? That is because we are normal, hard-working people who aren't profiting from "cheap labor" - instead we get to pay for illegal aliens to use our hospitals, schools and universities, roads, public lands, take our jobs as they move into construction, etc. etc. and we are sick of it. Not only the cost, but ordinary people want to see the laws enforced NOW.
Supply (of labor) = Demand (of labor) at the equilibrium (market) price. If you can't find anyone to hire, raise your wages.
What a chickesh*t! He'll fly into an Air Force base, not leave it, and then talk about illegals in a state that is being destroyed by them.
Ah I see that you are pushing that urban legend. tom tancredo attends the White House Christmas parties.
No need to as long as the border is open to millions of people willing to work cheaper and cheaper.
lol
What amount of pay is going to motivate a lard-assed welfare parasite to go out and pick grapes?
Which raises the cost of the product or service.
I'll never understand your alls hatred at small businesses that produce good products and services.
It's almost akin to the animus liberal democrats have toward business.
Ping.
Building contractors. You know...those who want to build your home? And you whine when the estimate comes back and you see that the cost is in escess of a buck fifty a square foot? So you go to the next contractor who gives you an estimate of a buck a foot and thats the one you hire. Except he uses illegals for his sub contract work.
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