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
The crawling on broken glass for ANY politician as if they are gods is o-v-e-r.
They are but men and there's nothing worse than a man who doesn't listen!!!
That was great !!! Thanks for the link.
That man deals with the leaders of nations because we busted our butts to get him that post for eight years. In return we get labeled unAmerican racists. If you are so ashamed of us here, you know the way out.
Bump.
Bravo for your comments! I haven’t seen anything what I would call out of line — it is Americans telling how they feel about illegal immigrants. I have seen a lot of post about what needs to be done.
We come from all parts of the Country and we are on the same page — enforce the laws we have, build the fence both structural and virtual on both borders, and NO amnesty for people who are here illegally which means they are breaking the law. I don’t see what is so hard to understand about that. Break the law, get the penalty.
This isn’t about the many people who have immigrated to this Country legally over the years, it is about people are here illegally, pay for stolen SS#’s, and put a drain on our social services and now they want to give them amnesty after they broke the law — no thank you! This Bush supporter has had enough of bending over backwards to illegals including students who are here on student visas that expired a long time ago and nothing has been done.
The President is wrong to force this bill on us when there are so many loopholes. There is an old acronym — KISS and that is exactly what is needed on Immigration not hundreds of pages of a document. Free Sen Inhofe’s bill from Judiciary and let American see the bill ENFORCE which is simplistic so anyone can understand.
I don't find the truth to be disrespectful. It is refreshing.
Never mind. Too late now - I don’t even want to read the prior 600 posts.
Go ahead tell the President of the United States you are going to withdraw the support you never gave him in the first place.
How glorious, an opportunity to thrash the president directly to the White House person seeking discussion.
Enjoy it - it will be the last time and will blow away your opportunity to get heard by those who have the power to bring about any change. The temptation was just too great - a chance to personally trash the President of the United States and make yourself look like an absolute fool. Just too wonderful.
Who needs to discuss - just rant.
From your lips to God’s ears! Amen sister!
Did you want me to read anything in particular at hot air? I saved it.
Did you want me to read anything in particular at hot air? I saved it.
Does New America have any hidden ties to George Soros? If that be the case, we’ve really been sold out.
There will be no influence, regardless. The White House has made it clear that they are uninterested in anything opponents of this bill have to say. The purpose of this communication was purely one-way -- an intent to calm, confuse and/or suppress the base.
And for that matter, Bush has been doing some thrashing of his own.
The link I posted
http://hotair.com/archives/2007/06/11/new-vent-the-first-open-borders-oscar-awards/
has a video at the top.
Click on the video and watch it. :)
Nice. You do know that everyone on this thread voted for him twice, right?
Look, the president is a man - he is not a God. I know you want to be more involved in politics, but to do that you have stop worshiping a cult of personality.
Remember, the president and everyone in congress are politicians. They lie, mislead and spin. Unfortunately, that is what they do. Some do it more than others, but our president has done a lot of it lately.
This just makes me ill. It needs to get posted over and over. Geez, this is a real nightmare.
You seem to forget - the office of President of the United States deserves respect as it is the highest office in our wonderful country.
To waste this opportunity to use this time effectively and state respectfully your views just shows that the site is nothing but a complainer site of people who will not think, will not work together, will not solve problems. They get their jollies seeing if they can express hate more than other posters.
All these years of trying to get our message out and the good ole people here throw it away. You know full well, after a page or two of this trash talk, they will go on to other sites were the intelligent people want to express views.
How often have you been told in your life to always discuss professionally unless you want your complaint thrown in the trash bin. Well, you guys are making FreeRepublic a trash bin and that makes me mad.
I thought this place was made up of conservatives working for the conservative agenda - but you people do not want to work for anything, you dwell on complaining and moaning - absolutely nothing more.
Oh, and support? There has never been support - it was thrown away many years ago the first time the President did not do as each of you programmed him to work that day.
See photo in #188.
Agree completely.
I agree with you . thanks for your post.
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