Posted on 05/26/2006 2:31:43 PM PDT by VU4G10
WASHINGTON - The White House on Friday said a Senate bill that would grant legal status to illegal immigrants is analogous to a traffic law that allows a speeder to pay a fine and continue driving.
"If you had a traffic ticket and you paid it, you're not forever a speeder, are you?" White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said in response to questions from The Examiner.
"So the fact is, you have paid your debt to society," he added. "And we have come up with a way to make sure that the debt to society gets paid. Then you move forward."
The "traffic ticket" analogy raised eyebrows on Capitol Hill, where many House Republicans regard illegal immigration as a grave crime.
"I don't know if Tony meant to trivialize it or not," said Will Adams, spokesman for Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo. "But it's certainly misleading."
"The penalty for a speeding ticket is a fine," he added. "The penalty for being here illegally is being removed from this country. But the president doesn't want illegal aliens to go home."
Snow emphasized that illegals would have to pay fines, learn English and wait years for a chance at full citizenship. But Adams called that "a slap on the hand" compared to deportation.
"Here's a more apt analogy," he said. "You get stopped for speeding, and you say to the cop: "Hey listen, you're about to give me a $300 ticket. How about we make it 20 bucks and just call it even?"
Snow predicted that House Republicans would eventually drop their opposition to the Senate bill, which passed Thursday. The bill, which includes a guest worker program that would grant legal status to aliens, is headed to a conference committee for possible reconciliation with a House bill aimed at beefing up border security.
Snow suggested the guest worker program could be sold to even ardent opponents like Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisconsin, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
"Chairman Sensenbrenner, who's got some real problems with various aspects, has said publicly that the temporary worker program has merit," Snow said.
"There are areas in which members of the House are going to agree with the president," he added. "I certainly don't want to be speaking for Chairman Sensenbrenner, but the fact is, you know politics."
But Sensenbrenner appeared unmoved.
"What's going on now, in calling it a pathway to citizenship or earned legalization, is not honest because it is amnesty," he said at a news conference.
Tony is right on here! The absurd exaggerations regarding the crime of illegal immigration by the far right are distorted and WAY out of the mainstream.
I think you are supposed to "ping" anyone you talk about - for your information, I am an American citizen, born in the U.S. of A.
I read the transcripts.
(many House Republicans regard illegal immigration as a grave crime.)
As much as I am against illegal immigration and want it stopped, I agree with the analogy. Both crimes are procedural. A serious crime is one that directly hurts another person, such as robbery or murder.
Some here at FR are anti-immigrant too.
Nope - America will still be right here.
Nope - I'm saying there are plenty of ways to skin a cat short of Reagan's 1986 amnesty.
I have no problem with them getting in the back of the line. But, the reality is they are here and those waiting in other countries are not. My solution is to clear the backlog in current legal immigration too.
If I steal something from someone, does it become mine if I don't break any other laws?
Well, adverse possession takes a few years IIRC, but in general, no. As I posted, lots os illegal aliens are not stealing anything.
That formatting did not come out right - let me know if you don't understand.
Yes, should. But they're voting anyway.
Here in my home county of Montgomery County, Md., five municipalities allow noncitizens (with no distinction between legal and illegal aliens) to cast ballots in local elections: Takoma Park, Somerset, Chevy Chase, Martin's Additions and Barnesville.-- Michelle Malkin
We all know that the sellouts in the Senate are incapable of acting in good faith.
What's wrong with this picture? Lu-lu-koo-koo-nu-nu?
I fear there are a huge bunch here who are so hotly anti-immigration, if not just out-and-out anti-Hispanic, that they have lost sight of the multiplicity of much larger and far more weighty issues that should actually be propelling the conservative cause, and woe be upon them for their tunnel-visioned ways, for they shall wreak socialistic tax-and-spend DemocRatic liberals upon the land, for all of their single-minded benightedness.
Nice rant :)
I am not anti-immigration. In fact, I am VERY pro-immigration.
Tony is an admitted member of the Council On Foreign Relations.
And his line here recently, as has President Bush's, has been straight from here.
And anyone who even in the slightest bit agrees with that document is not a conservative.
That document is the blueprint for the destruction of our country as we know it. People need to read it and wake up.
I would support deportation and no return ever to the U.S. for any non-U.S. citizen who votes.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/search?s=murder+illegal+alien&ok=Search&q=deep&m=all&o=time&SX=4477f530a5b9d15eab2311daa727dc0b3edb0ddb
My first inclination was to agree with you to a point. Then I said to myself, you know what, if you wanted to press the issue, you've got plenty of ammo.
Click the link wise a--.
So now it's only the far right who object to criminal activity? Jorge, get a grip.
I noted the comment about some people being anti-immigrant as well. Let me explain why that might be the case for some of us.
First of all, I'm not anti-immigrant per se. I am anti my town being flooded with people from half-way around the world who have customs that don't have anything to do with American customs, who try to ram those customs down their host's throats. My whole life I've heard stories about the ugly American. Let me tell you folks something, we've got a whole lot of ugly this or that on our soil these days. And some of these folks aren't an asset, let me tell ya.
I don't happen to care for having the Russian Mafia on our soil. I don't happen to care for Muslem extremists on our soil either. I don't like having Christian mores challenged across the nation at high schools. I don't like having Muslim customs forced down your kids throats by the Ninth Circuit Court.
We have instituted some incredibly short sighted immigration policies and they are having a terrible effect on our nation. If we were talking about people coming here and adopting the U.S. way of life and blending in, I'd be all for the immigration we've always experienced. Today that's far from what we are getting.
My town changed by 60% in less than 20 years. I'm not going to get into the ethnic make-up of the recent arrivals, but it wasn't an easy transition. Some parts of it weren't so bad, but then there were other parts. All of a sudden you've got a city council that is made up of people who've only been in country for twenty years. All of a sudden you've got people demanding that you alter your flags and adopt their holidays. All of a sudden you're supposed to care what happened over a hundred years ago in their former homeland. All of a sudden, your town is supposed to be just like their homeland.
Look, we have really screwed up our nation by flooding it with people who do not want to blend in. You're going to have to forgive some of us for thinking it might be best to place a moratorium on immigration for twenty years or so, until those who are here assimilate enough to use our language and adopt OUR customs, not the other way around.
The topic on this thread was illegal alien immigration. Is the worst problem with immigration right now, but there are other issues that are valid and should be addressed. I wish it weren't so.
If you had a traffic ticket and you paid it, you're not forever a speeder? Well, sort of.
In my state, you are still a speeder for three years. And if you get caught speeding several more times you continue to accumulate points. When you reach 12 points you license is suspended. Any more infractions while suspended and you can get your license revoked.
If only illegal immigration was like speeding tickets. We'd actually be enforcing it more and revoking these lawbreakers.
After 3 speeding tickets in one year you are likely to loose your driving privleges.
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