Posted on 06/14/2007 11:16:52 AM PDT by kristinn
A spokeman for the Bush administration sent an e-mail to Jim Robinson and myself confirming the authenticity of a post on Free Republic this afternoon regarding the immigration bill currently before the Senate as having been posted on behalf of the White House.
The spokesman, Nicholas Thompson, works for the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives. The Politico reported yesterday that Thompson and Kerrie Rushton, associate directors in the Office of Strategic Initiatives who work under Karl Rove, would be engaging the blogosphere on the immigration bill.
Thompson's post is on the thread titled Penalty Mitigation in the Immigration Reform Bill, a vanity posted by philman_36. Thompson posted at comment #53.
Thompson's e-mail to Free Republic included a brief introduction and the text of his posted comment:
Hi,
I just wanted to let you know that I just posted a response to the post "Penalty Mitigation in the Immigration Reform Bill."
The White House appreciates the opportunity to respond on Free Republic.
Response:
I would like to point out that the Secretary is authorized to reduce or mitigate penalities against employers who in good faith are trying to comply with the law. Certainly, we understand that not all employers knowingly hire illegal immigrants; this will remain the case, especially before the bill’s new secure documentation requirements are fully phased in. We do not seek to wrongly penalize honest employers who unknowingly hire illegal immigrants, therefore we reserve the right to reduce or mitigate their penalties if the employer can show good faith compliance in following the law.
For those employers who do knowingly hire illegal immigrants, please know that we intend to penalize these employers strongly, and the Administration has already stepped up these penalties in the last couple of years. For example, a 2005 program, “Operation Rollback,” assessed $15,000,000 in civil fines to employers, an amount greater than the sum of administrative fines collected in the previous eight years and was the largest worksite enforcement penalty in US history. In the first quarter of FY07, criminal and civil forfeitures have totaled $26,700,000 for employers.
As a reminder of what’s in the bill, fines for hiring an illegal worker are $5,000 maximum per illegal worker for the first offense, $10,000 maximum per illegal worker for the second, $25,000 maximum per illegal worker for the third , and $75,000 maximum per illegal worker for the fourth. In addition, the bill increases the maximum criminal penalty for a pattern or practice of unlawful hiring twenty-five-fold, from $3,000 to $75,000, and would impose a prison term of up to six months. This represents a significant increase in fines for employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.
Nicholas Thompson
White House Office of Strategic Initiatives
There is an article on Drudge from a UK paper. It talks about how they want to make the EU a superstate. Change their Constitution to a treaty in order to bypass the voters.
Its not just happening here. It is happening everywhere. We have been blindsighted and we are still running around looking for reasons other than the obvious.
I rarely argue or discuss it anymore. Maybe after it all comes about, it will finally dawn on people. It won’t matter much then, which is the intention, I guess.
European nations should have copied our charter while they had the opportunity.
Now we stand alone in the world with the only bullet-proof constitution ever written, which if correctly applied, will keep our nation, our union, our sovereignty, our freedoms and liberties and our borders intact in spite of what the agents of change have in mind for our future.
The big question, of course, is how assertive are we going to have to be to get our officials to apply it correctly? And, of course, the only answer has to be, we will be as assertive as we have to be.
And yes, we're still talking around the edges of this cookie for now.
Just out of interest, say this bill passes. It passes the Senate, the house and is signed.
How will people react? I wonder. I believe they will be angry and then move on thinking another election and retribution at the polls will make it better. If that is the case, we are doomed.
(I'll continue this later today.)
Nov 2008 cannot come soon enough for me and then Jan 2009! I don’t want anyone elected who has ties to Rove and this Administration especially his nephew George P. Bush. Time to end the ties to Bush/Clinton IMHO!
Please mail your Representatives and Senators, here is the letter i’m snail mail sending to them.
Address needed here
Dear Representative ,
I was for the war until I realized that this AMNESTY bill is being addressed before we have secured our borders. Without secure borders we truly cannot analyze our problem, irresponsible.
Representative from North Carolina have been negligent in their duties. It has now come light that you have not carried your oath of office responsibly. I have lost confidence in your representation and it really doesn’t matter which side of the vote you are on.
You personally neglected your responsibility for not pushing for border protection before we went to war in Afghanistan or Iraq. You silently allowed the president to place border guards in prison when they are trying to do their duty without a word. This is unforgivable. You say you are protecting us by sending our troops to another country, they use their life and you cannot even use your tongue to protect us.
Your commonsense is lacking and again this has been brought to light. I truly feel sorry for your inept abilities and wish you luck in further endeavors.
We need responsibility in Congress.
NO CONFIDENCE
Senators
Senator Burr
217 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING
WASHINGTON DC 20510
Dear Senator Barr,
I was for the war until I realized that this AMNESTY bill is being addressed before we have secured our borders.
You and Mrs Dole have been negligent in your duties as our senator. It has now come light that you have not carried your oath of office responsibly. I have lost confidence in your representation and it really doesn’t matter which side of the vote you are on.
You personally neglected your responsibility for not pushing for border protection before we went to war in Afghanistan or Iraq. You silently allowed the president to place border guards in prison when they are trying to do their duty without a word. This is unforgivable. You say you are protecting us by sending our troops to another country, they use their life and you cannot even use your tongue to protect us.
Your commonsense is lacking and again this has been brought to light. I truly feel sorry for your inept abilities and wish you luck in further endeavors.
We need responsibility in Congress.
NO CONFIDENCE
It isn’t fake... It is a real choice... You either take what you got when you can get bipartisan support with enough pressue on GOP politicians to get security built in to the bill or you do what you are doing and run the GOP to ground over it and let it develope into the wedge issue that loses the GOP the WH in 08...
Now if the Dems win the WH in 08 how are they going to fix Illegal Immigration...
Go ahead like the rest of the idots do say something real stupid now like...
“Well Maybe the Democrats will build a wall and not let the illegals have amnesty” Democrat politicians are upset over border security too right?
That tone is pathetic..
The Democrats are loving every minute of this issue... Just like I said during the abortion fight the left hated their Democrat leaders for not forcing the congress to write the law... Their candidates suffered from the abortion wedge issue the Democrats learned how to use the Judicial branch to bypass the Congress to fix that for them ....
So keep on lambasting Bush on this issue you will eventually get what you don’t want... Hard head Conservatives refused to learn from NOV 06...
Just one other point too... The big upset base barely notched his approval numbers over this issue so get over yourselves you are fringe minorities.
It isn’t fake... It is a real choice... You either take what you got when you can get bipartisan support with enough pressue on GOP politicians to get security built in to the bill or you do what you are doing and run the GOP to ground over it and let it develope into the wedge issue that loses the GOP the WH in 08...
Now if the Dems win the WH in 08 how are they going to fix Illegal Immigration...
Go ahead like the rest of the idots do say something real stupid now like...
“Well Maybe the Democrats will build a wall and not let the illegals have amnesty” Democrat politicians are upset over border security too right?
That tone is pathetic..
The Democrats are loving every minute of this issue... Just like I said during the abortion fight the left hated their Democrat leaders for not forcing the congress to write the law... Their candidates suffered from the abortion wedge issue the Democrats learned how to use the Judicial branch to bypass the Congress to fix that for them ....
So keep on lambasting Bush on this issue you will eventually get what you don’t want... Hard head Conservatives refused to learn from NOV 06...
Just one other point too... The big upset base barely notched his approval numbers over this issue so get over yourselves you are fringe minorities.
By the way, a liberal Democrat won a formerly Republican-held seat on the Houston City Council Saturday. Officially, it’s a nonpartisan election. The Demos will benefit big time from the “miserable failures” of GWB.
It’s hard to defend GWB isn’t it? About all one can say is that a Democrat will be worse, but it could be a tie.
Somehow, I don’t think Nov. 2008 will be a shining moment for conservaties. We lose no matter what, it seems. Just in the past month, Peggy Noonan and Michael Reagan have come out against GWB. But the congressmen are too shy to speak out, other than Tancredo, who said he wouldn’t have GWB even visit the White House were he the president.
PhiKapMom has been one of the most loyal Republicans and a strong defender of GWB. It grieves me to see her betrayed this way. I don’t see how GWB talks his way out of this betrayal if he were so inclined.
I was surprised to learn that Senator Burr is an “open borders” person. On that issue, John Edwards might as well held the seat.
That was so very well said. Thank you.
Yes I agree it may well be a tie but then politically the consensus that a tie brings is centrist and is usually the best path for the country.
That said...
I believe that GWB position of going on the offense, against the existential threat that Radical Islam poses, against the free world and in particular against the U.S. as witnessed on 911, transends all other Conservative issues.
The left’s cowardice in the face of the threat shows that they cannot be trusted at this time in our countries history. Heck some them actually think there is no longer any threat and that only our involvement have caused more threat from terrorism against our country...how’s that for extreme backward logic.
My hope is that a majority of Conservatives will see the forest through the trees on this one. My abortion analogy underscores the problem with single issue voters in either political party.
If America says Illegal Immigration is a problem that needs to be addressed then it needs to be fixed now. Stop all this nonsense about we must do it the Conservative only way i.e. enforce existing law and put up a wall. It doesn’t work, never has, and never will that is a bunch of ignorant pepole just laying the problem off to a future president and like I said previously if NOV 06 was any indication of what to expect in 08 well the Conservatives are going to lose a lot more then just the illegal immigration issue.
“It doesn’t work, never has, and never will”
Who would know? Enforcing the laws has never been tried since Reagans amnesty.
Exactly. Reagan never enforced it, Bush father never did, Clinton never enforced it a Majority Repbulican Congress led by none other then Newt Gingrich did not enforce it, G.W. Bush did not enforce it. 25 years of no enforcement hmm and all of a sudden Conservatives are jumping up and down saying lets try to enforce it and we accuse the Liberals of using emotion to cloud their judgement... lol... So lets just agree that it is an unenforceable law as it is written due to the political climate of Human Compassion that we live in.
If it was enforceable there wouldn’t be 12-14 million illegals here doing the so called jobs americans won’t do. They would be deported already.
So now that logic starts to sink in America agrees there is a problem with this illegal immigration issue and it needs to be fixed... sooner rather then later. So a President that happens to be Republican sits in the WH and offers up a centrist way to fix the problem... Oh yeah I said it FIX. If Conservatives would get off the I only want enforcement of existing broken laws bandwagon they would see that the bill before congress does fix the problem makes it so that illegals are legal (NOT CITIZENS). sure its Amnesty but Being legal now makes those illegals trackable oh so now we get a handle on the masses we can start to deport those that will not comply within the law we can deport those that are criminals we can have a workforce that contributes to the Federal Government in the form of taxes instead of taking only. We can limit the availability of nanny state handouts to these legal but Not Citizens.
But like I said let the Dems solve it... they will make them all citizens with voting rights blah, blah, thus securing that block for future generations... my God can you imagaine that they have 90 percent of the Black and Hispanic vote locked up... If you are a Conservative in that environment why bother going to the polls anymore you simply can’t beat the numbers.
I was watching UNITED 93 last night, and I have not stopped crying and yelling in rage at my TV.
How dare these congress people allow our immigration to run amok .. how dare they scoff at us and tell us to shut up .. when they have already forgotten the people WHO DIED TO SAVE YOUR SORRY REAR ENDS.
They don’t deserve OUR VOTES or OUR MONEY .. and until they put America first and not the Mexican govt .. they will get neither from me. And .. I’m not alone in this sentiment.
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