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.
Exactly!!
Actually the govt. does that, I'm for getting out of good businesses way, and not put more restrictions on them as the democrats and also it seems you want to do.
BINGO!
Kick the people off of welfare that are able to work, let them work in the farms and work their way back into society. Those are the people that once filled the jobs that the illegals are now doing. While we are at it, make the child labor laws go away, allow parents to decide when it is OK for their kids to work, and how many hours.
Good for you. There are plenty of employers who want to hire mexican guest workers. Only the govt. manipulation by imposing a border is stopping the willing mexican workers from the jobs that are waiting.
The market is also saying that govt. taxes, welfare and regulations on labor have priced much citizen labor out of the market in favor of migrants/illegals from mexico.
Join me in the fight to get rid of the irs and substitute a sales tax and reduce welfare and labor law regulation.
One law that should be immediately passed is a lifetime max cap on govt. aid and a 3 year exemption from all taxes and labor laws to anyone moving from welfare to work.
Any American business that pays minimum wage or above.
Don't forget, Dubya spent the first 40 years of his life curled up inside a beer bottle,
received a rubber stamp MBA, and accepted an entry level position on the board of directors of his own oil company. He honestly believes that other Americans are fat and lazy, and need to become "more competitive" by slaving at Third World compensation levels. To that end, he'll do whatever it takes to flood our domestic market with immigrant labor and export our industries offshore.
That is pure heresay on your part, but I do know of a $6 billion work project that was built with high wage American union labor and now it is leaking and the govt. can't assure it's safety, The big dig in Boston.
thanks bump!
Some might call that protectionism. For example, declaring car imports "illegal alien automobiles" might be contrued as protectionism.
Or Artificially decreasing the labor market by barring willing workers from mexico could also be called market manipulation.
The minimum wage act is the ultimate in market manipulation.
My observation exactly, when is the last time he faced people that are not constrained by court martial, if they don't "show respect, and cheer"?
Since it's unclear where you are from (Mexico?) - come on over to Arizona and talk to the homeowners around here so it won't be "heresay." Did you mean to say "hearsay"?
'How is it that we "need" foreign workers '
we actually don't NEED tens of thousands of Dunkin Donuts, each within 3 miles of each other...
In a way we are doing that. Only instead of bring them here to work in garment and electronics factories, we are sending the garment and electronics factories there and importing the goods instead as the market has deemed this is the more efficient method.
Fine, I don't doubt that some houses have problems, but you didn't back your statement up with an empirical evidence, just your hearsay, while I did back up my statement with empirical evicence, a 6 billion dollar project(Boston's big dig), built with American union labor, is now leaking and the govt. can't assure it's safety.
I don't know what amount of pay it would take, but hunger would be a real good motivator. Plus I see people paying for groceries all the time with food stamps. They often have hair extensions, fancy manicures, bling, and drive off in very nice, late-model vehicles. What if we cut off their benefits so they could no longer buy all that stuff? They'd darn well work.
There's no excuse for shoddy work especially when others are footing the bill. Either way, it's our tax money that ends up supporting these projects - be they built by unions or illegal aliens.
It is 2 months old and the lower level gym housing 4 basket ball courts has been closed due to a water leak and they are now replacing the floor. The showers have had a hot water problem now for about 1 week.
Go to the Union and demand the problems be resolved.
So than are you saying that companies that have a Union do NOT Hire illegals??
Hey, just asking....
No problemo... Pedro can fix it with a little Wattle & Daub.
The showers have had a hot water problem now for about 1 week.
Americans are woosies...
They should be taking more cold showers anyway.
</sarcasm>
Hah! Tell that to the people at GM who are losing their jobs along with the couple of hundred thousand each year to outsourcing. They gotta do something. So, they'll open up a dunkin' donuts and hire some illegals to make money. It's the new American way.
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