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Posted on 03/24/2006 7:17:47 AM PST by Millee
With the U.S. Senate starting debate soon on immigration reform, President Bush pushed Thursday for a program to allow illegal immigrants to work legally in the country.
"Part of enforcing our borders is to have a guest-worker program that encourages people to register their presence so that we know who they are and says to them, 'If you're doing a job an American won't do, you're welcome here for a period of time to do that job,"' Bush said during a meeting with representatives of groups that support the idea, including Denver Roman Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput.
The president's latest push came as it appeared increasingly likely that the bill the Senate will consider next week will contain a guest-worker provision, setting up a future collision with House Republicans who reject the proposal.
The Senate's Judiciary Committee has reached tentative agreement
WHAT'S NEXT IN THE SENATE? When the Senate returns Monday, the battle over immigration reform will begin in earnest. Once debate on a bill starts (scheduled to be Tuesday), it's expected to last two weeks.
If it appears there will not be enough agreement in the Senate to pass legislation, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist might block a vote, which could delay action on the immigration issue until after the fall election.
on a guest-worker plan opposed by U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo and others. No consensus was reached in earlier talks between Tancredo, R-Colo., and committee chairman Arlen Specter, a long-shot effort to find common ground.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., plans to set aside immigration legislation he introduced without the guest-worker plan and let the Senate vote on the committee's bill if it can be finished early next week, his spokeswoman Amy Call said.
Some on both sides of the issue predict Senate approval of a guest-worker plan.
"I think the whole Senate will cheerfully pass something close to what the president wants," said Grover Norquist, a liaison between Bush and Congress.
Tancredo, of Littleton, agrees.
"I think the Senate will pass some legislation, and it will have a guest-worker provision in it. I don't think they can get a bill out of the Senate without that."
But no one calls Senate passage a certainty. It's likely there will be numerous amendments offered in an attempt to strip out a guest-worker plan and other controversial elements.
If it appears there will not be enough agreement in the Senate to pass legislation, Frist might block a vote, which could delay action on the immigration issue until after the fall election.
Even if a bill with guest- worker language passed the Senate, it would face major hurdles. The Senate bill would have to be merged with one passed by the House in December. The House bill would beef up border security and toughen immigration laws but does not have a guest- worker provision.
The author of the House bill, Judiciary Committee chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., would exert pressure to have guest-worker provisions stripped out in conference committee, leaving only a border- security bill, Tancredo
said.
That could be tough to accomplish. Congressional leaders - who are the president's allies - get to choose the lawmakers who craft that final bill. That would set up a confrontation with Republicans in the House who have vowed to vote against any legislation with guest- worker language in it.
The push to pass a bill that could be signed into law was so strong that Specter, R-Pa. - known for his pragmatism - reached out to Tancredo more than two weeks ago.
"His purpose was trying to see where we were on it," Tancredo said. "We explained to the folks that came over (that) I can't imagine there's a way to compromise on it."
Specter's Judiciary Committee will meet Monday in an effort to quickly approve immigration- reform legislation that includes a guest-worker plan and possibly a path to citizenship for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants already in the country.
Though
KEY PROVISIONS OF IMMIGRATION BILLS Bill passed in the U.S. House:
# Makes it a federal crime for illegal immigrants to stay in the U.S.
# Makes it a crime to shield or support an illegal immigrant.
# Requires the Department of Homeland Security to build five fences along 698 miles of the U.S. border with Mexico.
# Contains no guest-worker plan.
Bill introduced by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist:
# Makes it illegal to knowingly hire an illegal immigrant without verifying his or her legal right to work.
# Provides for new border-control facilities, checkpoints, fences and barriers on the border in the Tucson and Yuma, Ariz., areas.
# Increases the number of Border Patrol agents and other workers handling immigration matters.
# Contains no guest-worker plan.
Under development by the Senate Judiciary Committee:
# Authorizes the secretary of state to grant visas to otherwise ineligible foreign citizens who can show they have a job in the U.S.
# The visa is good for three years and renewable for another three.
# Requires participating foreign workers to pay $500 and have a medical exam.
# Requires workers to return to their home country after six years.
Frist introduced his own bill last week, focusing solely on border security, that was done to get the issue on the debate calender, said Call, his spokeswoman. Frist intends to substitute in the Judiciary Committee bill if it's finished in time, she said.
Debate is scheduled to start Tuesday and last two weeks.
If the committee doesn't finish the bill in time for debate, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., plans to try to block debate on the Frist bill with a filibuster, Reid spokesman Jim Manley said.
"It's going to be a messy fight," said Tamar Jacoby, research fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute for Policy Research in New York.
Lobbying on both sides continues. Each day this week, Tancredo has sent out news releases calling on senators to reject guest-worker proposals.
Even the Mexican government has entered into the debate. It took out ads in large U.S. newspapers Monday advocating a guest-worker program here and offering to do more to secure its side of the border.
Thursday, Bush called for advocates on all sides of the immigration debate to be "civil."
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My peons are so stupid, they'll never catch on."
It's like the idiocies I heard today on tv from an open border lobbyist on Neil Cavuto. She was saying that Americans shouldn't go to school for 14 years and then have to do "those jobs."
She then threatened that if we don't allow her illegals to do those jobs, the companies will have to leave the country. Yeah, right, as if all the hotels, landscaping companies, and construction infiltrated by illegal cheap labor over the last ten years can really move out of the country...
That's exactly it, Queenie! All the jobs they can possibly send out of the country are gone. What's left, they're bringing in foreigners to take away from us. To paraphrase some other recent posts, and articles...
Time to grab the pitchforks, and light the torches! There's a monster in Castle Globalstein, and it needs put down for the good of society. I'll be in Texas come May 6th, and I may be going to DC after that.
Bush has really got to drop that "jobs Americans won't do" line. It is patronizing and out of touch. If I hear or read of him saying it again I'll puke.
Our borders should be closed one way. The only open ones should be the 'way out."
"Mister President,
Shame on you! There is NO job that Americans won't do provided it pays the bills and keeps the family fed. Just because you're too lazy or effete to do them yourself, gives you no right to speak for your countrymen.
These jobs are often the only source of income for American citizens lacking a college education. Not every man and woman in this country WANTS or NEEDS to go to college. Quit taking food out off the plates of American citizens and giving it to foreigners here ILLEGALLY to advance your crack-brained scheme for ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT.
There. I said it."
Your post was so good it needed to be repeated!
.....
Dittos
It's disgusting to hear the open borders lobbyists saying the exact same thing as the POTUS, in that same condescending manner.
Okay,
so I e-mailed the whitehouse and used 'some' of your rant... just want to give you credit. : )
Every time I see that picture of those two whispering back and forth, I wonder what they were REALLY saying to each other. Chances are, your caption isn't too far off the beam.
My whole family has done those "jobs Americans won't do" for generations - we're farmers, ranchers, crane operators, heavy equipment operators, truck drivers, carpenters, sheet metal fabricators, electricians, plumbers, factory workers, landscapers....
The president is out and out full of it when he says Americans won't do those jobs. I could produce a crew of men in my own extended family who could build a town from scratch - from the roads to the buildings, to the parks, to the homes - and they're all Americans for many, many generations back. And there are lots more families like mine in America.
The president really means that Americans won't bow and scrape to "massa" enough to suit him and the rest of the stuffed suits running the government, Democrat and Republican alike, as well as their fat-cat corporate donors. Nope, those are "jobs Americans won't do" just because the Americans who do those jobs are proud men and women and expect to be treated with respect and dignity and paid for the valuable service they give to their employers.
Bump!
The real whisper is probably a lot worse.
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