Posted on 02/01/2006 7:38:50 AM PST by Reagan Man
Sadly, the President missed yet another great opportunity to correct his course on immigration reform tonight. The President should have clarified his plan and joined the forces in Congress holding the line against amnesty. Instead, Americans will have to wait and wonder where the President stands on securing our borders, while he pushes for guest workers.
The President must enforce our immigration laws before we consider any guest worker proposal. Until we bring law and order to our border anarchy, importing more workers into the equation is out of the question.
In 1986, Congress passed a blanket amnesty on the promise that border security would come later. We all remember the ’86 bait-and-switch, and we won’t be fooled again. There is no way to determine if we need guest workers, and there is no way to gain control of this broken system until we seal our borders and control our country’s interior.
A Gallup poll released this week showed that a mere 25 percent of Americans approve of President Bush’s handling of immigration—his worst approval rating of all major issue areas that were surveyed.
The House’s get-tough immigration bill is in the Senate’s hands, where it is in jeopardy of being dropped or – worse yet – turned into a blanket amnesty. From his bully pulpit, President Bush could have broken the Washington stalemate and secured the most significant immigration reform in a decade. But tonight we got more of the same—more stalling, more roadblocks, more lax enforcement with no action in sight.
Border security is not an issue from which President Bush should run away. An overwhelming majority of Americans demand that their government secure the border now, and if we restore law and order, Republicans will be the political winners. As the President does in so many other areas, he must not retreat but lead.
I'm afraid that's an accurate assessment
Workplace enforcement. Fine...who exactly is gonna do the enforcement, and how much is it going to cost. Try to get local California municipalities to go along with that.
How about the same people that enforce my comliance with local laws regarding,landscape construction,pesticide applications,ad volerum taxes,business licenses,state certifications,sales taxes,etc.,,?They range from the local city municipal office to the Alabama Department of Agriculture.
Big fines for employers. Great...another way to hurt business...especially small ones.
My business is a small one.One that is directly impacted by others utilizing illegal labor.The only small business this would hurt,are the one's operating illegally.You don't feel sorry for those Enron execs do you?They were simply trying to make a buck.
Jail time for employers. Fine...build more prisons. Of course finding a contractor locally might become a problem.
Simply not true.There are contractors out there,believe it or not,who believe in obeying the law and are doing so.Even though the cards are stacked against them.
Don't kid yourself, it's been well thought out.
For decades there has been a strong Communist presence in Mexico, it's one of the reasons the feds have ignored the steady stream of would-be worker revolutionaries north of the border. We are absorbing the very forces that would fight for change in Mexico.
If a few employers who broke the employment laws with respect to hiring illegals were sent to jail, there would be no need to build more prisons because employers would quickly realize that the penalty for hiring illegals was to expensive relative to the benefit and the practice of hiring illegals would stop. Very few employers would ever need to be jailed. Your argument is nonsense.
People cheat the IRS just like people speed. But a little enforcement by the IRS goes a long way and the vast majority of Americans obey the tax law. A little bit of enforcement of our immigration laws would also go a long way and the IRS could absolutely turn it into a bonanza for the American people. About 65% of illegal immigrants are using fake/stolen Social Security Cards. That means that 35% are cheating the system. That is billions of non-tax compliance and would pay for every bit of the enforcement being talked about. Your argument is nonsense.
Making on-line document checks mandatory would take away the excuse that businesses are currently using to avoid prosecution. They claim that they could not tell the documents were fake. With mandatory checks that excuse would cease to exist and prosecution would become a no-brainer and most employers would just plea bargain and pay the fine rather than incur legal fees in a lost cause. Your argument is nonsense.
Fences work. Only about 5000 people successfully crossed the Berlin Wall in 40 years. In Israel, the fence has cut terrorism by 95%. Our fence would probably not work as well because I doubt we would shoot transgressors but if it cut the problem in half it would be an enormously good investment. Your argument is nonsense.
Just once I would like to see somebody opposed to enforcing our laws make a reasonable argument.
Where did Bush say anything about supporting illegal immigration.
Hmm I wonder where you have been the last four years, what has Presidente Bush done other than invite illegals over here with his talks of amnesty. Nothing to improve enforcement efforts. Yes he left out the word illegal in his speech, but his actions have shown otherwise.
You are going to get an inspector to grab an illegal immigrant? Don't think so.
My business is a small one.One that is directly impacted by others utilizing illegal labor.The only small business this would hurt,are the one's operating illegally.You don't feel sorry for those Enron execs do you?They were simply trying to make a buck.
Business owners are not private investigators. You are going to put the burden of proving who someone is on them? Not. Fraud is a little different.
Simply not true.There are contractors out there,believe it or not,who believe in obeying the law and are doing so.Even though the cards are stacked against them.
See previous response.
Yes it's slightly more palatable in it's present form. But you can bet the farm it will be gutted. First to go will be the provisions that mandate leaving the country to apply for the program.
The same bumbling inept federal agencies that allowed them to come illegally in the first place. Honestly, anyone who buys Bush's snake oil on this topic is beyond naive.
"Well gneius", maybe because he has his own BETTER program!!
A 2000 mile long fence... now that is nonsense.
A third-world America...now that is nonsense.
We're being sold out.
Tancredo for President! He's the only one who is speaking for the majority of Americans.
Yep. They will. And because of withholdings included in those paychecks, they wont be as cheap as the their now Illegal variant.
Spoken like a true defeatist. I suppopse a trip to the moon is out of the question too.
Why is a fence nonsense? So many countries are going with them these days, must be doing it for a reason.
Very little difference between this batch of immigrants and the last.
None of them have turned us into a third world nation yet.
Nonsense is the policy we have now.
A fence and security would be makesense.
Check this out: Rewarding Employers that Abide by the Law and Guaranteeing Uniform Enforcement to Stop Terrorism Act of 2005 or the REAL GUEST Act of 2005
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