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
C’mon, Mr. President. Come talk to us. You know you want to. Think of it as a town hall meeting:’)
Oh, please, FINALLY they are enforcing. As you well know there was virtually NO workplace enforcments until recently by this administration.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1849470/posts?page=55
CHART
See #356. Is that a big clue enough for them to figure out?
There is a day care teacher at my son’s day care from El Salvador or Guatemala (I don’t remember). She came here LEGALLY without a husband and 3 children. She has worked LEGALLY, paid her taxes, worked at becoming an American citizen (which now she is) and learned English-—ALL AS A SINGLE PARENT WITH NO EDUCATION-—her 2 daughters worked as teenagers at after school jobs to help keep their lights on at home and buy food. IT’S A SLAP IN HER FACE-—when we give amnesty-—or don’t prosecute the employers for hiring illegals——it is wrong, wrong, wrong. To let all those illegal ALIENS stay is like saying, if enough of you break the law, then we won’t enforce,,,,,makes my blood boil!
Howdy JW
What ever his selling,I ain’t buying.Enforce the current laws on the books!There is your legacy.Got that Mr President?
Duncan Hunter’s son is a freeper.
Bump for tonight
It was always a typical tactic of the Communists to try to engage the enemy in dialogue and try to ensnare them in talks. Like the Communists, the administration knows they can’t get us to agree on immigration and amnesty, but they’re to get us to come to some practical understanding with them. Like the Communists, the administration is now trying to get in contact with Conservatives on FreeRepublic b/c they don’t have any power over us. If we hlive with them eventually they know they can overcome our resistance.
The safest thing to do is not to talk or listen to the Bush Administration or any other of these NWO/Communist/Open Border typees/Neo-Cons/Rockefeller Republicans in the administration and Congress. Until they convert back to Traditional Conservatism, we can have nothing to do with them.
To out it simply Nick to you and your bosses in the administration...we don’t want to talk to you because we know you are against this country. We aren’t going to fall in your trap of “dialogue”. The President and the administration have shown themselves for clearly being the enemy within and along with all the other Rockefeller Reupblicans who are in Congress are Communists in all but name. Nick, we aren’t giving in and until you give in and do what is right for the country by scrapping this bill... we will turn a deaf ear to you, the President, and the administration.
How many of these felons backgrounds will be found when they use false names and there is a maximum of 24 hours to FINISH the background check?
On well.
How many times are you going to post this fallacy?
The fact of the matter is that any future congress can annul this law or make changes to it. You act like that if we hurry and do something that the democrats won't be able to change it later.
So can we drop this line of defense from the "my president, right or wrong" talking points?
It seems the WH’s Strategic Keyboard Warrior Crew has been trying to create another outbreak of WSD (Whoosh Scream Disease).
Redstate at least got two follow-up posts from the guy.
We got only the spam. Sucks to be FReepers, I guess.
My name is Elmer J. Fudd. I own a mansion and a yacht.
Tony Snow made me sick on Laura Ingraham’s show this morning. I used to respect the guy, but he’s just a pathetic panderer. No scruples. At least Laura gave him a rough time and didn’t buy in to the spin.
kristinn speaks for me as well with his reply.
“The louder he spoke of his honor, the quicker we counted our spoons”
Words mean little without action to back them up. Enforcement has been taken so lightly during the past 6+ years that we simply do not believe you today.
Secure the border, crack down on employers so hard that none dare try hiring illegals, support local and State LEOs when they capture illegals (that means come get them and deport them, don’t set them free), and do all that for more than a few months, then come back and let’s talk about what laws are needed in addition to the laws the federal government has been mostly ignoring for years now.
Until then, you have no credibility for anything you say in pimping for this horrible bill, S1348. Let it die, go do your jobs and sincerely enforce the current immigration and border laws.
But if you insist on trying to sell S1348, start by debating Senator Sessions and his list of the 20 worst aspects of S1348. So far, you haven’t successfully won a single debate point against Senator Session. Not a single one.
That is all.
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