Tancredo doubts he can block amnesty-extension bill

Friday, March 08, 2002 - WASHINGTON - Rep. Tom Tancredo takes credit for thwarting the Bush administration's last effort to offer partial amnesty to thousands of illegal residents, but Thursday the outspoken immigration foe said he may have been outmaneuvered by the White House.

President Bush has struck a deal with the House leadership to place legislation that offers an extension of amnesty on its consent calendar before Bush heads to Mexico for a state visit next week, the Colorado Republican said.

That action should ensure quick House passage of legislation that Bush has repeatedly sought from Congress. It would allow an undocumented person to receive legal standing, such as a valid green card, by filing a declaration with the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

It presumably also would require the person to have been in the United States by a certain date and have filed a declaration with the INS from an appropriate sponsor, such as a relative or employer, and pay a $1,000 penalty.

"The terms are still up in the air," said Dan Stein, executive director of the Federation for American Immigration, a group that has been allied with Tancredo. "We've heard to the effect that the president wants something to bring down to Mexico."

The initial Bush proposal, designed exclusively for Mexicans, once was high on the president's legislative wish list, but it was delayed after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. However, as the president noted Wednesday in a speech to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, he now is pushing for the extension of the amnesty program known by the section of immigration law that covers it, Section 245I.

The president hailed it as a way to reunite family, separated by the border. "If you believe in family values, if you understand the worth of family and the importance of family, let's get 245I out of the United States Congress and give me a chance to sign it," Bush told the chamber members.

Tancredo, the head of a congressional caucus on immigration issues and proponent of halting virtually all immigration, said he had blocked a previous attempt by Bush to push an extension of the amnesty program through the House. But this time, he said House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., had agreed to place the issue on the suspension, or consent, calendar, making it difficult to defeat the proposal.

The Senate might be more favorable to the bill than the House, expanding the numbers of individuals who can apply, Tancredo said.

This is a picture that has been frequently repeated all over the United States of America.

"I have typed, "coming to a neighborhood near you soon" probably two hundred times. The last thing America needs is millions more uneducated, unskilled, illegal aliens. Unfortunately, thats what we are getting, thousands more every month, to the tune of approximately a million more a year.

Its time to lock the doors for our own survival.

Our classrooms are over crowded, our land fills full, our highways are jammed, our social services are being choked off, standing room only in many big city ERs, our energy resources are being strained etc.

Enough is enough. Its time to stop the titanic invasion of million upon millions. Its time to reform our immigration policies. We cannot continue this massive "immigration free for all".

Take a look at this:

Gov't indifferent as assembly jobs flee Mexico

Some 10 to 15 years ago, when the assembly-plant (maquiladora) industry began to grow in earnest, many Mexicans used to say this was not what the country really needed.

The nation needed well-paid jobs, not badly-paid ones. However, as population and unemployment bulged, most observers came to view the assembly-plant industry as a blessing. Better to have badly-paid jobs for millions of Mexicans, than none at all, people would say.

Today, opinions, at least in government, are turning against assembly plants once more. Suddenly, after almost two decades of steady growth, the nation's assembly-plant industry is suffering a severe slump.

Official figures show employment at assembly plants was down 17.3 percent in Dec. 2001 and the figure is, in fact, over 40 percent in key assembly-plant cities, such as Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez.

The reason for the slump is, partly, the recession in the U.S. economy, which translates into lower demand for Mexican goods, given that the United States buys about 85 percent of all Mexican exports. However, domestic economic distortions are also a key factor in the decisions of many assembly plants to leave the country.

The Mexican peso has become overvalued against the dollar, while wages have risen fast. Average wages had risen 8.5 percent in real terms in Dec. 2001 from a year earlier, according to official figures.

The assembly plants, therefore, are losing their competitive edge and are deciding to relocate in Central America or Asia. Is the government concerned about this? Apparently, not very much.

Officials seem to think the peso has only just found a sustainable market value and should stay at that level as part of "convergence" with the U.S. economy. The convergence theory also implies the nation cannot run a low-wage economy forever, authorities say.

President Vicente Fox recently said the nation's export model, supported until now by major investments in assembly plants, is "to some degree, is worn out" and he proposed the nation should now seek a new era of economic growth emphasizing technology and products Mexicans themselves have developed, in order to compete in international markets.

"Mexico should offer products based on its own research and design, in order to be competitive," Fox said.

Fox's ideas are little short of astounding. Mexican industry has never invested in its own research and development, nor have its products ever been world leaders. Why should they be now? How can things suddenly be so different?

It would seem the government is being complacent about the apparent demise of the assembly industries, rather than showing concern and taking action to stop them from leaving the country.

The government's message seems to be that the collapse of the assembly-type manufacturers may be inevitable and is no big problem anyway, as long as the rest of the economy is stable and foreign direct investment keeps flowing into telecoms, banking and service industries. Market analysts, who continue to give thumbs up to Fox, say the peso's current level can be maintained and put Mexico's country risk at its lowest level in recent history.

It is hoped that, in line with convergence theory, Mexico's economy will now turn around and follow the U.S. economy upwards. However, after so many years in which Mexico fought so hard to attract assembly plants and compete with Asian companies in textiles and electronics to be exported to the U.S. market, it is hard to understand that the Fox government can be so indifferent as these industries flee the nation, leaving many cities with fast-growing unemployment. Could it just be it does not want to acknowledge its failure on this issue?

Can you see millions of more illegals flooding across the border?

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.