Posted on 05/14/2006 6:20:19 PM PDT by Spiff
President Bush will deliver a televised address to the nation tonight on immigration policy. It is his first address from the Oval Office on immigration, and if it not successful, it may be his last.
In this speech, the President needs to do three things to accomplish his goals. There is a road to consensus and success if the President will take it. It is not only a path to consensus -- it is a path to success for the Republican Party in November.
In his Monday speech, the President needs to make a clear break from previous speeches on the topic and come home to Republican Party principles. He needs to stop pandering to perceived voting blocs and employer lobbies and speak to the one thing all Americans agree upon: No immigration policy is workable without secure borders.
The President needs to speak to the nation as fellow citizens, not ethnic or economic groups, and tell them America will have secure borders that stop all illegal entry into our country. He needs to announce that he will federalize the National Guard in four border states to provide support to the beleaguered Border Patrol. He needs to say this will happen tomorrow morning, not next month or next year.
The second thing the President must do is explicitly separate the priority and necessity of secure borders from all other proposed federal legislation. Secure borders do not depend on a “comprehensive” immigration reform package that includes amnesty and a new temporary worker program. Secure borders are a prerequisite for any new immigration legislation, not a component to be bartered away for increased immigration numbers or new visa rules.
The third thing the President’s speech should do is to avoid any mention of amnesty for illegal aliens already in the country. No matter how cleverly he defines his “legalized status” proposal as not being amnesty, it is still amnesty and everyone knows it.
Americans are not in a mood to negotiate the matter of “regularization” for 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens -- and Newt Gingrich has pointed out the amnesty would ultimately legalize up to 36 million -- until they see we have in fact achieved secure borders. Once that is done, once our laws are being enforced, then we can begin to discuss the problem of how to deal with the millions of illegal aliens already living here.
I hope the President and his advisers are perceptive enough to see that this course of action is the only one that will achieve all of his goals. It will unify the Republican Party. It will stop the flood of illegals aliens crossing our borders. And perhaps most importantly, it will point America in a positive direction for immigration policy and set a foundation for future reform. To be sure, it will not solve all of our immigration-related problems -- but it will be a much-needed and long overdue start.
A new beginning is what we desperately need, and the President’s speech can do that if it is based on candor, on Republican principles and the priority of secure borders. Anything less will not only not be a new beginning, it may very well be the end of Republican coherence and credibility.
Rep. Tancredo (R.-Colo.) is chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus.
Rep. Tancredo does not hate President Bush. If his effort was all about Bush hating or some fundraising scheme, as you suggest, then he would not have over one third of the Republicans in Congress joining his Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus. And those Republicans that are on his Caucus are some of the most conservative members of Congress and make up over two thirds of those who earned 100% "Best and Brightest" ratings from the American Conservative Union.
Your smears don't have any merit. Just because you disagree with Conservative Republican Tom Tancredo on this issue does not give you license to constantly trash a good conservative Republican in Congress.
Tancredo does nail it.. especially this: "Secure borders do not depend on a “comprehensive” immigration reform package that includes amnesty and a new temporary worker program."
One thing to add, after securing the borders, make sure the door still opens southward.
Mind boggling this: "Newt Gingrich has pointed out the amnesty would ultimately legalize up to 36 million"
That would be 1/3 the population of Mexico sitting in our Country!
The polls show that the majority of Americans - especially Republicans - oppose amnesty. The majority of Republicans oppose a guest worker program.
There's no amnesty.
Bump!!!!
and I see, unfortunately, you couldn't even get to post 4 before the smear commenced.
TANCREDO'S IN BED WITH BUCHANAN * SQUAWK *
Yet you can't even get a derisive Bush comment out of your tagline.
Does hypocrisy mean anything to you?
The Democrats are on rocky ground with the labor unions, too. Union leadership has gone way over to the left with the Democrat party, but I don't think the rank and file are any too pleased to be losing jobs to illegals.
I'm just doing the cheerleading thing.
I'll stand behind our fine CIC GWB any day of the week.
It's very convincing.
You and your obsession with polls.
Bill Clinton, is that you?
Rah! Rah!
lol!!
Warning. When debating an OBL, remember...
You guys like the polls that have Bush at 30%, don't you?
somebody running for president?
Tancredo's PAC gets their money from American citizens fed up with immigration. Better than getting money from employers breaking immigration laws, as the RNC/Bush administration is doing.
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