Bush visit to promote reform [Laredo, Texas]

LAREDO MORNING TIMES ^ | 06/06/2006 | TRICIA CORTEZ

[SwinneySwitch]

To promote his latest initiatives on border security and immigration reform, President George W. Bush will stop in Laredo for an hour-long visit today. It is the first time in 30 years that the president of the United States visits Laredo.

Bush is expected to make a brief statement at the Laredo Border Patrol Sector headquarters. He will also travel to Artesia, N.M.

The Laredo International Airport will be closed temporarily during the president’s arrival and departure on Air Force One, but no flights will be cancelled, said Airport Director Jose Flores.

For security reasons, spectators will not be allowed inside the airport terminal, nor will they be allowed to stand by the fence at the terminal, Flores said.

A group of greeters have been selected to welcome Bush at the airport, one of whom will be Mayor Betty Flores, according to White House officials.

Bush and immigration

Bush, who opposes deportation of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants, supports a guest worker program.

According to a speech he gave last week at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, he is pushing for bigger fines for employers who hire illegal immigrants, as well as tamper-proof identity cards for workers.

He also supports tougher border law enforcement and citizenship for illegal immigrants who have spent years in this country, so long as they pay back taxes and demonstrate English proficiency.

Bush must work with competing House and Senate immigration reform proposals to reach a compromise bill.

Two bankers who have closely followed the increasingly bitter debate expressed their concerns with recent proposals from Congress.

Local concerns

Dennis Nixon, International Bank of Commerce president & CEO, and Gary J. Jacobs, Laredo National Bank chairman of the board, said greater high-tech surveillance, the dispatching of National Guardsman to the border and building a wall will not stem the tide of illegal immigration.

Studies from the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General, General Accounting Office and Congressional Budget Office have shown these programs are costly and ineffective, Nixon said.

Neither Nixon nor Jacobs will be on hand during the president’s visit.

The federal government must instead drastically increase immigration quotas, and overhaul its Immigration and Naturalization Service to process people in a more efficient manner, said Nixon, who has been deeply involved in the issue the last three years.

“I’ve just grown more disappointed and demoralized at the rhetoric,” he said.

“To hear the platform of the Republican Party of Texas leaves me with personal despair,” Nixon added. “None of these people have day-to-day border involvement and none have provided any sophisticated analysis to support their agenda.”

Putting more cameras, sensors and other high tech gadgetry on the border will not “mystically solve our problems,” he stressed. “It’s frustrating to see that kind of leadership across the board.”

Most immigrants who come to the United States often take jobs in opposite extremes of the workforce sector: lower end, unskilled jobs or higher skilled jobs in science, engineering and technology fields.

Jacobs said he supports the president’s guest worker program but few of the stricter proposals.

“I believe (Bush) has compassion for poor people in Mexico who come here desperately looking for work,” Jacobs said.

“And he has a ranch in Texas, so he knows personally the stupidity of building a fence anywhere around Laredo,” he said. “It’s horrendously expensive to build and maintain and will do no good whatsoever.”

Moreover, such a fence would send a wrong message “to our friends in Mexico,” Jacobs said.

He called the sending of National Guardsmen tot he U.S. Mexico border “offensive.”

“I was in the Air Force National Guard seven years,” Jacobs explained. “We use soldiers to kill people. The Guard was not trained to look for undocumented immigrants in the monte of South Texas.”

The best way to control Mexican immigration is to allow people who come to work in the United States to come and go freely, Jacobs said.

“We’ve made it so expensive to come here” Jacobs said, citing the Simpson-Mazzoli immigration reform bill of 1986.

“Before that bill, there were no coyotes and it cost $45 for a worker to cross into the United States,’ Jacobs said. “Now, it costs between $1,500 and $3,000 to hire a coyote, so they’re not going to go home.”

(Tricia Cortez may be reached at 728-2568 or by e-mail at tricia@lmtonline.com.)

[La Enchiladita]

“And he has a ranch in Texas, so he knows personally the stupidity of building a fence anywhere around Laredo,” he said. “It’s horrendously expensive to build and maintain and will do no good whatsoever.”

Call the waaahhhhmbulance!

[A CA Guy]

Yes he is......with a passion!

Seems to me that all you have to do is establish an employee data base the employers have to verify status with.
Make it Federal, consisting of a picture, SS or other number & DNA in case of criminality.
Make the employers verify the person and if they don't and pay under the table, fine and eventually award the employer with a felony.

Do that and millions will have to go back on their own first to gain legal entry or they will have little or no work,

The illegals will have to remove themselves or probably starve and we won't have to use resources to remove them.

[stephenjohnbanker]

I can check any of my potential employees back to the fetus in 30 minutes. This whole thing is a scam!

[Mogollon]

Just heard Dubya in Nuevo Laredo bragging again about the border patrol deporting 6 million illegals in the last few years. Yet he maintains that deporting 12 million illegals is impossible.

Seems to me if they did they same thing they did to deport 6 million for twice as long they could deport 12 million. But that's just a thought from the unwashed serfdom.

[A CA Guy]

What the President wants to do is a scam IMO on this issue.

Of course as an employer you can check if you want to, but those wanting to use illegals are willing to take at face value false documentation knowingly.
That is why I said they need to change the focus of this and require the employer to verify the employee with a Federal data base.
If employers do not do so, or get caught employing under the table, fine them, then fine them more, and eventually jail them with a felony if they don't get with it.

Once the employer issue is handled, most of the illegal issues will take care of itself.

[A CA Guy]

You force the employers to verify employees with a Federal data base that had finger prints, pictures, numbers and DNA and the illegals will either starve or have to exit and try to re-enter legally.

It is really simple and would remove most illegals with little work.

[Dane]

Hey SJB, which is a bigger threat to America.

or

Knowing your animistic biaes it probably is the strawberry picker named Jose, who is raisng a family and doesn't lobby local school boards to promote the homosexual agenda.

[The South Texan]

“I was in the Air Force National Guard seven years,” Jacobs explained. “We use soldiers to kill people. The Guard was not trained to look for undocumented immigrants in the monte of South Texas.”

Using this idiots logic, the next hurricane that hits the coast that requires the guard to help in the recovery, they should be given orders just to shoot all of the survivors and save money.

Only in Laredo can some say that and be left unchallenged.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Dennis Nixon, International Bank of Commerce president & CEO, and Gary J. Jacobs, Laredo National Bank chairman of the board, said greater high-tech surveillance, the dispatching of National Guardsman to the border and building a wall will not stem the tide of illegal immigration.

Bush's fat cat corporate cronies....

[hosepipe]

Amnesty = 20 million (or so) brand new democrat VOTERS?..

A stealth campaign for Hillary.. no doubt..
As republicans snore.. BRILLIANT..

[La Enchiladita]

Just heard Dubya in Nuevo Laredo bragging again about the border patrol deporting 6 million illegals in the last few years.

Did you hear him on radio or local television?

Here are a couple of photo ops from Artesia, New Mexico, today.

Pres "greeting" BP agents.

Meanwhile, down at the border...

[SwinneySwitch]

MS-13

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

I'm sure this fella isn't picking tomatoes Dane.

[Kimberly GG]

"Two bankers who have closely followed the increasingly bitter debate expressed their concerns with recent proposals from Congress. ....... ........Dennis Nixon, International Bank of Commerce president & CEO, and Gary J. Jacobs, Laredo National Bank chairman of the board, said greater high-tech surveillance, the dispatching of National Guardsman to the border and building a wall will not stem the tide of illegal immigration. ............... ...............The best way to control Mexican immigration is to allow people who come to work in the United States to come and go freely, Jacobs said." Perhaps Mr. Jacobs and Mr. Nixon are sweating R.I.C.O. bullets? I don't think there is a remedy in 2611 for their predictament. "Some large U.S. financial corporations currently accept the matricula as primary or secondary ID for the purpose of opening bank accounts in the United States for illegal aliens. An illegal alien with a U.S. bank account, in which he or she may deposit illegally acquired funds, and out of which he or she may pay local rent, local utility bills, and send money abroad, is more likely to remain illegally in the United States. In other words, he or she is encouraged to remain illegally in the United States — such encouragement being a violation of Federal law. When such a violation is done for the purpose of financial gain, as in the case of the financial corporations engaged in the practice, it is more than simply a violation of immigration law — it is racketeering . Also, those contemplating entering the United States illegally will be further encouraged to do so because of the added benefits they can obtain once they enter. Thus, it is reasonable to say that acceptance of the matricula is a violation of the INA and a predicate offense under RICO."

[La Enchiladita]

In today's news, el presidente visits the border! Wow, huh?

[rock58seg]

He does however have a fence around his ranch. Now why do you suppose that is?

[ncountylee]

He also supports tougher border law enforcement and citizenship for illegal immigrants who have spent years in this country, so long as they pay back taxes and demonstrate English proficiency.

Amnesty with a very transparent disguise.

[ncountylee]

Not an either or situation, I'm against both. Oppose the President on amnesty but proudly support his position on gay marriage.

[Larousse2]

“Dime con quién andas y te diré quién eres.

Tell me who you side with and I will tell you who you are.”

— “George W. Bush for President” web site