Posted on 06/19/2006 10:23:58 AM PDT by kellynla
Top conservative leaders have written President Bush telling him to drop his insistence on a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship for illegal aliens and instead support the 85 percent of congressional Republicans who want to tighten law enforcement first.
Signers include William J. Bennett, Robert H. Bork, Ward Connerly, David A. Keene, Phyllis Schlafly and a number of think-tank academics and pundits.
The immigration debate is the first major issue on which Mr. Bush finds himself opposing a majority of Republicans in Congress and depending on Democrats to deliver a victory. In their letter, the conservatives tell Mr. Bush to side with his fellow Republicans in Congress or risk repeating the 1986 immigration law that promised enforcement and amnesty but delivered only the amnesty.
"Border and interior enforcement must be funded, operational, implemented and proven successful and only then can we debate the status of current illegal immigrants or the need for new guest-worker programs," 39 conservative leaders write in the letter, to be released today. A copy was obtained yesterday by The Washington Times. The letter was addressed as well to House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee.
Across the House and Senate, 85 percent of Republicans voted either for the House bill, which is an enforcement-only bill, or against the Senate bill, which dramatically increases immigration and offers a new right to citizenship for illegal aliens.
"That's pretty overwhelming among congressional Republicans. That shows a distance from [Senate bill sponsors Sens. John McCain and Edward M. Kennedy] and what the White House has been saying recently," John Fonte, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute who is helping organize the letter, said in an interview.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
"He needs to keep the focus on the economy and the war."
I agree completely. Immigration is one of those issues where people are going to be angry no matter what the president does. The war and economy, in contrast, demonstrate the reactionary ideas Democrats advance, which works to our advantage.
One issue third partiers can turn control over to the leftists.
So the jerks who are pushing open borders, citizenship and all this other tripe, over American Sovereignty and obeying the LAW have a choice.
They can pull their heads out of their collective asses and get with the program to shore up our borders and protect our country, or they can assist in the destruction of their party at the polls.
The Immigration issue is NOT going to go away, no matter what they may think or wish.
Or have a really big cause, like slavery or ...
Since the last time a third party won the presidency was the Civil War, I'd sorta like to avoid it.
The President is hard-headed on almost every issue. I don't happen to agree with him this time, but he always sticks to his guns ... something I have long admired in him.
More and more I'm agreeing with those who say, "And then what?" What are things going to be like in 10-20 years. Every bit of this anti-immigration argument is right here, right now, and ignores the future.
1) The Mexican birthrate has dropped to 2.3 kids per family. In short order, this will turn the illegal flow from a flood to a trickle, without anybody doing anything.
2) http://www.nascocorridor.com/ This is a picture of what is being planned--an ultra trade route that will re-create America's heartland--red States--as the artery for massive trade not just with Canada, but with all of central and South America. Trillion of dollars flowing into the US economy.
3) The vast majority of Mexicans that enter the US have assimilated faster than ANY other national immigrant group or race. They are almost 10% of the US military. And unlike the images seen from LA, in Phoenix, they are completely integrated and become middle-class in short order. There is an entire county in Arkansas that is majority hispanic--almost all employees of Tyson Foods.
The variation here between productive and valuable and worthless and criminal is enormous. And while I am all for building the wall ASAP and imprisoning and deporting criminals, I cannot abide throwing out millions of hard-working, middle class Americans, many of whose children no longer even speak Spanish.
Big difference.
So, what is Bush's point in doing it THIS way when he could probably get what he wants in a little different way? I'm not of the opinion that he's stupid, and I really don't think he's that insulated.
susie
Good.
We need every voice out there shoving back...hard...on this in case they get any suicidal thoughts of slipping this through the "shadows" of the night lesgislative votes.
Oh, and for those hypeventialating that you haven't managed to silence our voices on this? Invest in a paper bag. If we succeed not only will America benefit, but so with the Republicans and this President won't have this disaster pegged to his legacy. What you would have us accept would result in just what you fear, loss of Republican power and a disastrous legacy for him.
Just remember this. You take joy in claiming "Alito and Roberts" as accomplishments while knocking down O'Connor and Kennedy. But Bush might well have had his "kennedy and O'Connor" if we hadn't denied Miers. I know, some of you still think she'd have been "super" though nothing in her record or even questionaire she was given a do-over for indicate that to be so.
same thing here. Reagan signing amnesty was a mistake, we're not going to make a worse one now voluntarily. Though at least he enforced the laws when it was passed, This President has a reluntance to enforce the ones already on the books.
Well, it would make it alot more difficult to argue for deportation.
susie
As you say, the issue is not going away.
The president is worried about losing the Hispanic vote into the future. I see his concern.
His compromise isn't being bought, though. He needs to get off of it. Let the Zarqawi death and the return to focus on the war give people a chance to get away from the immigrant discussion for a while.
This is a prime time for a third party to take over. There lots of issues in which American voters are not being heard. This is just one.
President Fox: Deje a mi gente en(let my people in).
President Bush: Oí eso(I heard that!).
Ok, so there won't be an amnesty law. At what point will the President start enforcing the laws already on the books?
Lots of people, including me, disagree with you.
WELCOME TO FR!
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