Posted on 05/29/2007 10:15:03 AM PDT by Rb ver. 2.0
GLYNCO, Ga. (AP) - President Bush attacked opponents of an immigration deal Tuesday, suggesting they “don’t want to do what’s right for America.”
“The fundamental question is, will elected officials have the courage necessary to put a comprehensive immigration plan in place,” Bush said against a backdrop of a huge American flag.
He described his proposal—which has been agreed to by a bipartisan group of senators—as one that “makes it more likely we can enforce our border—and at the same time uphold the great immigrant tradition of the United States of America.”
Bush spoke at the nation’s largest training center for law enforcement.
He chose the get-tough setting as conservative critics blast a Senate proposal as being soft on people who break the law. Hoping to blunt that message, Bush emphasized that any new options for immigrants and foreign workers would not start until tougher security is in place.
The presidential stop came during a congressional recess, with senators back home and facing pressure from the left and right on the immigration plan. Bush’s aim is to build momentum for the legislation, perhaps his best chance for a signature victory in his second term. The Senate expects to resume debate on it next week.
“A lot of Americans are skeptical about immigration reform, primarily because they don’t think the government can fix the problems,” Bush said.
“And my answer to the skeptics is: give us a chance to fix the problems in a comprehensive way that enforces our border and treats people with decency and respect. Give us a chance to fix this problem. Don’t try to kill this bill before it gets moving,” Bush told students and instructors at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.
Bush repeatedly cast the matter as one of political courage.
“Those determined to find fault with this bill will always be able to look at a narrow slice of it and find something they don’t like,” the president said. “If you want to kill the bill, if you don’t want to do what’s right for America, you can pick one little aspect out of it.
“You can use it to frighten people,” Bush said. “Or you can show leadership and solve this problem once and for all.”
The bill would give temporary legal status to millions of unlawful immigrants, provided they came forward, paid a fine and underwent criminal background checks. To apply for a green card, they would have to pay another fine, learn English, return to their home country and wait in line.
The plan also would create a guest worker program. It would allow foreign laborers to come to the U.S. for temporary stints, yet with no guarantee they can eventually gain citizenship.
Both the new visa plan and the temporary worker program are contingent on other steps coming first. Those include fencing and barriers along the Mexico border, the hiring of more Border Patrol agents and the completion of an identification system to verify employees’ legal status.
The legislation would also reshape future immigration decisions. A new point system would prioritize skills and education over family in deciding who can immigrate.
Georgia’s senators both played leading roles in producing Bush’s deal with the Senate. Yet they have also said they may not support the final bill, depending upon how it is amended.
Bush chastised those who say the proposal offers amnesty to illegal immigrants. He called it empty political rhetoric.
Not too many good ones on the list: Sessions, Inhofe, and Dole is much more conservative than anyone thought. Maybe it’s her mother’s influence on her.
I’m ashamed I voted for this guy twice. His failure to stand up and explain, justify and support on a regular basis his own policies in the middle east had me frustrated. This stand on immigration has moved me into the disgusted and pissed off phase.
There are a few pieces of the proposal that, if you cut out the amnesty, make sense. After all, this is ALLEGEDLY “enforcement first”, that’s how it’s being sold, right?
Problem is, the whole concept of provisional amnesty or the “Z” visa immediately wrecks the concept of “enforcement first.” And further, you and I both know that if this bill is enacted as a whole, the “triggers” (which are BS anyway) will be quietly removed when the Democrats expand their majorities in 2008.
The only thing that will work is a tough, almost Draconian, enforcement strategy with both “exterior” (border fence, increased security, more Border Patrol, troops on the border if need be, and cracking down on Mexico) and “interior” (mass deportations, cracking down on employers knowing employing illegals, making an employment verification database work, repeal of anchor babies) enforcement. ONLY THEN, after strict enforcement is in place, the border is sealed, and illegals are streaming home by the millions, forcibly or not...only then can we even begin to think about guest worker programs or “Z” visas.
A “comprehensive” bill simply means that the enforcement parts of it can be ignored, and the amnesty parts can be enforced. It happened in 1965, it happened in 1986, and it’ll happen in 2007.
}:-)4
Also, look how nasty they treated Miss USA in the pageant. They booed her loudly and chanted Mexico, Mexico as she was trying to speak. She rose above them all though when she thanked them in their own language. She was a contestant in a pageant and didn’t deserve that kind of treatment. However, THEIR behaviors and lack of class speaks volumes.
Now this:
“A lot of Americans are skeptical about immigration reform, primarily because they don’t think the government can fix the problems,” Bush said.
“And my answer to the skeptics is: give us a chance to fix the problems in a comprehensive way that enforces our border and treats people with decency and respect. Give us a chance to fix this problem.”
Is enfuriating, to say that “Gee how did all of these illegals make it in here?” Is insulting to anyone with half a brain’s intelligence, GWB has been office for 7 years, we had a major terror attack 6 years ago, and just now, we are to believe that GWB et al should be trusted to fix this problem by granting amnesty through a sham program.
And then you attack your fellow Republicans? After all the water carrying we have done for you?
uberrima fides cui bono fuisset?
Conservatives now need to seriously discuss their next moves after this crap is officially signed into “law” by President Bush! What good is it for a majority of conservatives to decide to stay at home on November 4, 2008 if it also helps prevent, for example, a Fred Thompson/Duncan Hunter Presidential ticket from winning? What are conservatives supposed to truly do next!?!
“I would be careful if I were Bush, as Fred Thompson so admirably noted a few weeks back ... “the Whitehouse fails to grasp, immigration is connected to the Iraq war”. And that connection would be through Bush’s only remaining supporters.”
I’m beginning to wonder - why support a PC war ‘over there’ to keep them from fighting us ‘over here’ when we won’t even protect our own borders?
This issue goes beyind the immediate question of amnesty for illegal invaders.
It goes to the very heart of representative government.
These clowns were elected BY us, they are supposed to SERVE us, and the overwhelming majority of Americans in all political parties have made it very clear they oppose amnesty and “guest worker” programs. They have made it very clear that border security is their number one issue.
The President of the United States, some members of his own political party, and a substantial number of the opposing political party are, or are planning to, tell the people who elected them to office, and pay their salaries, to go to hell. They are telling us they don’t respect our opinions, they don’t care what WE want, and they know better what is good for us, and the nation, than WE do.
They are also telling us that we have a short memory and will forget this treachery, this arrogance, this elitism, this stab in the back, this blatant pandering to political correctness and a foreign government.
If they are permitted to escape unscathed at the ballot box for the consequences of their arrogance, don’t ever bother to vote again - it won’t matter who we elect.
They will know that, in the end, THEY and not WE are the ultimate determinants of what is best for us.
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How’s that fund raising going boys?
BTTT!!!!
When we get hit up for campaign contributions by the national Republican Party, we should print this out and mail it to them.
Only campaing to individual candidates who follow Republican principles - like Duncan Hunter.
The reason this is being pushed so hard is that the Republicans have realized that the issue has gotten away from them. Mass deportation is the only real solution, but mass deportation in this age of omnipresent media just isn’t going to happen. The recent Mexican demonstrations in LA and elsewhere scared the politicians badly. The sight of crying mothers and babies on TV being forced into buses by ICE troopers will turn those millions of “peaceful demonstrators” into an army. Mass deportation would kick off a civil insurrection.
No politcian is going to risk that, And so, the Z-visa — soft amnesty for the invader class.
Ten or so years from now, George Bush II, like his father, will be shuttling between his ranch and the seaside estate in Kennebunkport, ME. His hours of liesure, under taxpayer funded Secret Service protection, will be punctuated periodically with foreign travel and speaking engagements and book deals that like his father and Clinton will be regal affairs with big paychecks.
If he sees a hispanic at all, it will be some el Presidente or corporate mogul, not the guys at the day labor site or remodeling crew around his house (the Secret Service wouldn’t let an illegal anywhere near).
Now what about you, and that quaint little middle-class town you live in? Well, here’s Heather MacDonald’s quote on what used to be a Leave-It-To-Beaver suburb in California:
“Protecting one form of lawbreaking may require protecting others as well. The city of Maywood in Los Angeles County declared itself a sanctuary zone for illegal aliens this year. Then it got rid of its drunk-driving checkpoints, because they were nabbing too many illegal aliens. Next, this 96 percent Latino city, almost half of whose adult population lacks a ninth-grade education, disbanded its police traffic division entirely, so that illegals wouldn’t need to worry about having their cars towed for being unlicensed.”
As in Maywood, La Raza (the race) triumphs politics. The Democrats and Karl Rove are confused if they think hispanic loyalty would be anything more than transitory on the way to a hispanic majority. In 20-30 years, there won’t be a Democrat/Republican division, it will be a Democrat/Partida de la Raza divide, competing to be the more statist and corrupt regime. Republicans will be quaint historical remnants, like the last few Whigs around the Civil War.
Which is a fitting comparison, for a civil war is in the residue of the policies the President and political elite are bringing about.
America! It was a noble experiment. We are lucky to have lived it. God bless the United States, and RIP.
That makes two of us!!
This is an important issue, one I’m probably more hard core on than most.
But most of the posts on this thread aren’t important. Unless some find it important to co-opt any issue to talk about ‘Georgie” or his “Daddy”.
This reads like an application thread for Cindy’s old job.
Yeah, oldbie, I’m a newbie.. you got me there!
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