Bush pushes guest worker programme

Financial Express ^ | Wednesday, November 30, 2005 | PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

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WASHINGTON, NOVEMBER 30: Amid opposition from his republican party to any programme that will 'regularise' millions of illegal aliens, President George W Bush has advocated his temporary guest worker programme while also favouring a hardened border with Mexico.

The President's tight ropewalk on a touchy political issue came as 75 per cent of Americans in one poll opined that the government was not doing enough to protect the borders. at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona, yesterday, Bush portrayed his proposed temporary worker programme as a way to relieve pressure on enforcement by bringing illegal immigrants "out of the shadows." according to the President's guest worker proposal, an estimated 11 million illegals in America will have the chance to register and work for up to six years. They then have to return to their countries of origin and apply for a new work permit to re-enter. But conservative republicans have portrayed this programme as a backdoor method for amnesty. "There’s a lot of opinions on this proposal. I understand that," Bush said. "The programme that I proposed would not create an automatic path to citizenship. It wouldn't provide amnesty. I opposed amnesty." the President said us has always been a "compassionate nation" that values a "newcomer" and that people should not have to choose between a welcoming society and a legal society. Bush also pledged to harden the border with increased manpower and new technology, including unmanned aerial surveillance; one of the proposals being to return illegals to hometowns in Mexico.

But with congressional elections in November 2006, the President has to walk a political tightrope between humouring the right wing that calls for tougher enforcement and the Republican Party's own strategy of courting Hispanics, the fastest growing minority in America. the US Congress has plans to take up the issue of immigration soon but there are several proposals in the Senate and the House of Representatives already and with vast differences in them.

The house, for instance, is scheduled to take up border security measures alone soon and leave the guest worker programme to a later date. The senate wants to take on a comprehensive immigration reform Bill but only in February 2006.

It is estimated that every year one million undocumented persons attempt to cross the 2000-mile US-Mexico border with Arizona alone accounting for one half of them.

[Sam the Sham]

Funny how you always try to shift the subject away from your precious illegals, o commandante of the San Patricio Battalion.