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 bills 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 whats 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
“Wouldnt it be funny if this Nick guy were a TEMP?”
...oh, he’s a temp, whether he knows it or not.
Well, it is pretty poor class if that place and opportunity is ruined because a few are too ignorant to act appropriately.
How often do politicians attend town hall meetings? Very seldom. We have a person trying to link us up with the White House and, lo, people here think it is Jerry Springer showtime.
Thank your cohorts for trashing the president for eight solid years, giving absolutely no support and now ruining your opportunity to discuss issues with the White House listening.
And you choose to support them rather than your right to have an effect on a very serious issue of our time? What is wrong with you?
Certainly there's room for improvement to enforce existing laws like you said.
However, as long as there's demand for cheap labor, the market will provide it. So the bulk of 20 Million Mexicans laborers are here to stay, even if we are stringent with our laws.
Honestly, I think it's a waste of time to try to disagree with President Bush on this amnesty or "shamnesty" like you would call it.
The best we can do is to build an Israeli-style Wall of America on the border and leave it at that.
We should focus all our energy on that.
Glad we’ve come to an agreement.
Goodbye!
They said it was a done deal last week. They said it was a done deal a month ago, and before that a year ago. I don’t care what liars say. keep dialing through to your reps and scare the living hell out of them. If they are dumb enough to do this, this will continue as we organize to throw all the bums out next year.
Not if the penalties for hiring an illegal are prison time. Those jobs would dry up overnight if a few plant managers and CEOs being handcuffed and walked to the back of a police car where shown on the news.
Key senators have tentatively agreed on a plan to revive a stalled immigration bill |
||
Posted by HAL9000 On News/Activism 06/14/2007 5:12:14 PM CDT · 14 replies · 438+ views AP News Alert ^ | June 14, 2007 Key senators have tentatively agreed on a plan to revive a stalled immigration bill, officials say. |
Thank you for saying that. I am in agreement with you here. I'm willing to work with the President on this issue. And get something worked out.
We get nowhere if we just bash President Bush and call him names and all that jazz.
Here's their web site. They had a conference - invited guests were Harry Reid, George Soros and others.
http://newamerica.net/events/2006/u_s_strategy_towards_iran
Well you can be sure that low level opperative has moved on to another website. Two or three pages of these hateful, disrespectful rantings tell really quickly that they are wasting their time here - no one wants to discuss.
And, your ranters again get to destroy the efforts to move conservatism forward as they always do daily..
Proud of them are you? Not me. They are idiots.
POST #604 WELL SAID!!!!
New America Foundation & George Soros. (see my recent link)
What is wrong with ME? Excuse me, show me where I have made any comment that would lead you to think I have even participated at all yet? I merely pointed out what I see.
Ohh, thats right, you haven't read all 700 posts to know my level of participation.
lol
We'll never hear from that guy again.
Excellent comments.
Um...you might want to recheck that. The whole point of a town hall meeting is for the people of the town to discuss issues with politicians.
Town hall meetings always have elected officials there.
I haven’t been able to find anything on the WH Nicholas Thompson to determine they are one and the same.
Not sure about New America Foundation, but I found a bunch of leftist Global Warming alarmists among their leadership.
What if the illegal immigrants are using Social Security numbers that they have stolen from dead and elderly people? It will be kind of difficult to bust them.
Like I said, if we become more stringent, then there will be a market for fraud in order to "legalize" the status of illegals.
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