Posted on 04/26/2006 5:20:12 PM PDT by West Coast Conservative
President Bush generally favors plans to give millions of illegal immigrants a chance at U.S. citizenship without leaving the country, but does not want to be more publicly supportive because of opposition among conservative House Republicans, according to senators who attended a recent White House meeting.
Several officials familiar with the meeting also said Democrats protested radio commercials that blamed them for Republican-written legislation that passed the House and would make illegal immigrants vulnerable to felony charges.
Bush said he was unfamiliar with the ads, which were financed by the Republican National Committee, according to officials familiar with the discussions.
At another point, Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada and other members of his party pressed the president about their concern that any Senate-passed bill would be made unpalatable in final talks with the House.
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking Democrat, said the lawmaker who would lead House negotiators, House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, had been "intractable" in negotiations on other high-profile bills in the past. Bush did not directly respond to the remark, officials said.
The Republican and Democratic officials who described the conversation did so Wednesday on condition of anonymity, saying they had not been authorized to disclose details.
Bush convened the session to give momentum to the drive for election-year immigration legislation, a contentious issue that has triggered large street demonstrations and produced divisions in both political parties. Senators of both parties emerged from the session praising the president's involvement and said the timetable was achievable.
"Yes, he thinks people should be given a path to citizenship," said Sen. Mel Martinez., R-Fla., a leading supporter of immigration legislation in the Senate.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Then the answer, I take it, is "No, we haven't secured our borders" and "employer arrests/fines have been reduced." And "Bush's budget scraps 9,790 border patrol agents," only allocating funds for the hiring of 210. Actions speak louder than words.
Having not answered by question, you give me some made-up conclusion.
Answer my question: We haven't made any arrests at the border since 9/11?
He didn't raise your taxes
Facts don't matter.
A revolution??
Turnabout is fair play. Answer mine first.
"We have secured our borders after 9/11?"
A Beattle's song I think.
Yea ... I think I've heard this song before
You know the last time I was in Vegas I stopped to buy gas a two separate gas stations, Neither station had an attendant that spoke English.
Plenty of people at this web site are working to make sure that happens.
Yep, the same folks sings it every year around election time.
What we need is another conservative crack down. Bush is the one who decided to side with Kennedy on illegals. He could have pushed for an enforcement first bill, but he wants amnesty.
You got that "right" Howlin..
Talk about an Invasion!
Where did all of these dopes come from? DU perhaps?
No wonder it's starting to smell!
Turnabout is fair play. Answer mine first. We have secured our borders after 9/11?
I simply said that the concentration of enforcement went from the work-site to the border. You have yet to acknowledge that. Instead you give me hyperbole in the form of a rhetorical question.
There you go. Mexicans pumping gas, a job that YOU won't do.
No One can "side" with Fat head Ted--
You go to go A-round him.
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