Clinton praises Bush on immigration reform

Yahoo News ^ | 07/08/06 | By ROBERT JABLON, Associated Press Writer

[garbageseeker]

LOS ANGELES - Former President Bill Clinton praised President Bush on Saturday for supporting reforms that would allow millions of illegal immigrants to seek citizenship but said the debate in Congress is being fomented by Republicans who want to divide America.

"I'm proud of him for doing it and I thanked him for doing it," he said of Bush during a "Cafe con Clinton" breakfast speech to the annual conference of the National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest Hispanic civil rights advocacy group.

Clinton said Bush's roots in Texas — which has one of the nation's largest Hispanic populations — have helped him view immigrants as people rather than statistics.

"It's hard to demonize people if you know them," he said.

But Clinton also argued that the nation's government is controlled by Republican ideological hard-liners who want to use immigration to divide Americans and distract them from issues such as the war in Iraq and the health care crisis.

Instead of equal opportunity, they support a "financial elite" because they favor "concentrated wealth and power," Clinton said.

"They believe in a government that is secret, unaccountable and that maximizes its own power," he said. "They really believe the world works better if they run it and we keep our mouths shut."

Clinton supported an immigration reform measure passed by the Senate that would provide a way for many of the estimated 12 million foreigners living in the country illegally to become citizens. A House-approved bill would make illegal immigrants felons and build 700 miles of border walls. House and Senate negotiators so far have not been able to work out a compromise.

Bush has said he wants to enforce the borders so fewer people sneak across but also provide a way for those already in the United States to become legal. He has praised Hispanic immigrants as hardworking and family oriented. Clinton used similar language in his own speech.

The message played well with La Raza, which opposes the House bill and whose current president, Janet Murguia, was an assistant in the Clinton White House.

Before Clinton's speech, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa noted a string of rallies over the immigration issue, including one in March that sent 500,000 people into the streets of Los Angeles and garnered international attention.

"You literally reshaped the political landscape of our nation ... we can still see a movement blooming before our very eyes," he said.

Both Democrats and Republicans have been looking for ways to court Hispanics, whose fast-growing population gives them the potential to become an enormous voting force. Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, was scheduled to address the convention on Tuesday

[garbageseeker]

I do not think so. The president is a very moral man who believes in God unlike former President Clinton whose morality is in question.

[DoughtyOne]

Wobbly George! Remember wobbly? Think back. Ask around. Think now. Think 'Borders Under Control'!

Don't stay wobbly on us George!

[garbageseeker]

President Bush I think realizes that with the biased congress he's been handed to work with, without profiling and asking for proof of citizenship, there's no way the 12 million ILLEGAL ALIENS can be rounded up and deported so he's had to try and come up with another solution

In other words, the President is graping at straws.

[garbageseeker]

LOL

[Altura Ct.]

Except for maybe Teddy K. I can't imagine anybody I like to have endorsing Mr Bush on this issue that Wet Willie himself!

[AmeriBrit]

That doesn't explain Karl Rove voluntarily going into the Lions' Den (aka La Raza/Mencha)..

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When was the last time, if ever, Karl Rove didn't have something up his sleeve and made a move that didn't end up slapping the DemocRATs in the face.

As for the other, until I actually hear or read something said or written by either 41 or 43 to the fact they support their alleged agenda I consider it just propaganda and hearsay put out by the anti-Bush crowd.

[siznartuf]

"Clinton said Bush's roots in Texas — which has one of the nation's largest Hispanic populations — have helped him view immigrants as people rather than statistics."

What part of "Ilegal" don't you understand!

This is what Clinton realy said:

Bush's roots in Texas — which has one of the nation's largest Hispanic populations — have helped him view ILLEGAL immigrants, as people, rather than criminals: aided and abetted by our traitorous leaders."

[upchuck]

BUMP to your reply. Spot on!

[AmeriBrit]

In other words, the President is graping at straws.

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That's about all he's able to do with the congress he has to work with. I don't see that he has any other choice.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Carter already did a couple weeks ago.

[siznartuf]

Typo: 'really' said (not) 'realy' said.

[churchillbuff]

putting the blame for the country being divided on the Republicans instead of where it really belongs, on the shoulders of the far left leaning commies...aka democRATs."""

On immigration, it's Bush that's dividing the GOP. His plan to give America 10s of millions of new Democratic voters by legalizing all the illegals, has a lot of Republicans angry - I'm one of them. I don't want the Republican Party wiped out by a sea of new Democrat voters. Is Bush a closet Democrat? He might as well be, given that his plan would make the Democrats a majority party. Ted Kennedy knows that - which is why he proposed the plan. By endorsing Ted Kennedy's plan - and sniping at Republicans who oppose it - Bush is acting like a Democrat strategist. A Democrat version of Karl Rove.

[garbageseeker]

Great post

[garbageseeker]

Bump

[garbageseeker]

LOL.

[markoman]

I wonder if the people of La Raza realize that more illegal aliens were deported during the Clinton administration than during the present one.

[kerryusama04]

LOS ANGELES - Former President Bill Clinton praised President Bush on Saturday for supporting reforms that would allow millions of illegal immigrants to seek citizenship but said the debate in Congress is being fomented by Republicans who want to divide America.

Yes, Bubba, the real Republican want to divide America - between the legal Americans and the illegal Americans.

[AmeriBrit]

Try reading the transcripts and note what PRESIDENT Bush has actually said and what he ran on for re-election, not what others have spun and said he said.

[garbageseeker]

Actually more illegal immigrants came to America under the watch of President Bill Clinton than were deported. Those 20 million illegal immigrants came to the United States in the 1990s

[garbageseeker]

Is Bush a closet Democrat?

I do not think he is a Democrat. He is certainly not a Ronald Reagan conservative. He is what you call a "country club Republican" or also known as a RINO