Posted on 04/02/2006 7:55:32 PM PDT by RWR8189
MIDLAND, Texas — Cecilia Ochoa Levine was a Mexican trying to make it in America. But when she hit upon a promising business opportunity, to make knapsacks south of the border to sell in the United States, she could not get the trade permits she needed.
And so Levine asked for help from a longtime friend in Texas, where she had been a legal resident for many years.
The friend was George W. Bush.
Within a week, Levine was on a plane to Washington for a meeting with trade officials. And soon after, she had the papers to expand her business, creating dozens of jobs at plants in El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
Not everyone would have been willing to use his influence to help a Mexican citizen start a company, particularly one creating jobs in Mexico as well as in the U.S. But Bush's actions of 21 years ago help explain why today, as president, he is striking an unusually nuanced tone on the emotional question of immigration policy — a stance that has placed him at odds with the conservative Republicans who have long formed the base of his political support.
"Here was this single mother, Mexican, no money, starting a tiny little business," recalled Levine. She phoned Bush because his father was then vice president and "he was willing to use his connections in Washington to help me out. He understood it would mean jobs for poor people."
Long before the immigration fight that is rattling the nation, Bush developed a picture of immigration from his life in Midland, where he knew Levine and other Mexican immigrants personally and came to see both sides of the border as part of the same universe.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
I'm tearing up...sniff....
I don't know what is right in this debate. Frankly, what is the point of becoming a nation where you must present your "papers" at the slightest turn? Certainly to vote, yes. But America's strength is its friendly immigration policy, and that is our historical stance. The times we turned boatloads of refugees away were embarrassments. Let's figure out who is raising Cain over this issue in the first place. Closing the borders is not a solution I'm necessarily in favor of. The harshness of the desert is somewhat of a deterent as it is, except to people desperate to feed their families. We need some thoughtful anaysis and framing of the question before laws can be drafted dealing with it.
What does this have to do with illegal immigration?
Liberal MSM is defining this issue as a matter of racism.
"But America's strength is its friendly immigration policy"
That's is sole "strength?" Don't we have one already letting in 1.1 million a year legally?
Should the Chamber of Commerce and the cheap labor industries determine our immigration policies?
Isn't our "strength" a middle class that is viable? Is the policy of depressing wages of American citizens and legal residents moral? It's not, so, should we allow morality to be redefined by employers seeking to increase short term profits?
Admittedly the salient points are being drowned out by the MSM and twisted polls. The Unions are silent, I suppose their leaders have been coopted into secrue Democratic Party/Industry promises of paybacks.
One of poppa Bush's talking points for putting NAFTA on the fast-track was that it would reduce illegal immigration......plus the feelgood stuff you just wrote.....guess what it didn't work, except against us.
P.S. We have laws now. We need enforcement.
I've lived near Santa Rosa, California for the past 25 years. In that time I've seen the town go from being under 5% Hispanic to over 25% Hispanic.
No nation can handle the type of mass migration that our country is seeing and remain a nation....
Yep. We need immigrants today, and we are making it much more difficult to come into this country legally than ever. The anti-immigrant crowd is extremely emotional on this issue though. We need to manage and control immigration much better so that we know who is coming in and keep out bad elements, but we need to allow hard working healthy people in, IMHO.
"Long before the immigration fight that is rattling the nation, Bush developed a picture of immigration from his life in Midland,"
Mow the lawn Pedro!
"where he knew Levine and other Mexican immigrants personally and came to see both sides of the border as part of the same universe."
Were they legal immigrants?
This smells like a Karl Rove guided puff piece. It's amazing. The MSM/Demorats have become a party of the upper class, what they had claimed conservative republican constituted.
"And so Levine asked for help from a longtime friend in Texas, where she had been a legal resident for many years."
If I'm understanding this correctly, this woman was already either a citizen or of legal status in the US.
This has nothing to do with the mass invasion by illegals except to juxtaposition this story to it to aid the open border forces.
The idea here is to eliminate the "illegal" from "immigrant" to manufacture a false argument that states people are against immigrants in general.
"but we need to allow hard working healthy people in, IMHO"
How many? 1 million? 10 million?
Don't we allow 1.1 million per year legally already?
100,000. The Senate bill proposes to raise that to 400,000.
That would be the total, not the legal, I think.
Please back this up with some links.
You've been throwing out these statistics in your short three weeks here, and I have not seen a single supporting source for any of them.
the business community wants these workers for the service industries.
the knowledge jobs are being exported to china and india.
the "powers that be" know exactly what they are doing.
It is the amount of persons naturalized each year.
AND it doesn't include green card admittees (legal residents).
The Senate bill and Bush want to legalize ALL illegal PLUS increase green cards 400,000 per year.
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