Posted on 03/08/2002 1:24:33 PM PST by sarcasm
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.
We keep hearing liberals claiming the illegals are paying taxes and so should get amnesty. I'd like to see the evidence they are in fact paying taxes. I doubt more than one or two could produce a file income tax return for every year they lived and/or worked here.
I did not vote for Bush, but there are plenty of friends of mine who did who are not supporting Bush on this issue.
Those who try to subterfuge the discussion of the effects of amnesty with screechings of racism and sheet ironing sound like Rainbow/SHOVE robots.
Pathetic and laughable for such self-styled "conservatives" to become Sharpton clones! What an embarrassment!
But that's only after having completely trounced him using simple conventional wit. Watch and learn something. But don't get too close to the fire or you too will get burned.
It is ashame that some folks in America feel it is okay to allow outlaws into America thus further exascerbating our current problems.
"The Death of the West" should really be resonating throughout the (former) nation about now.
Nah, no one reads anymore. Besides, "everyone knows" that the author is a racist/sexist/fascist/nazi/antisemite (am I forgetting anything?).
Things will have to start getting really bad before people start waking up.
I think that we should do away with the citizenship requirement for members of Congress and President - maybe we could get some illegal aliens to do the job for half the current cost.
And they could pick apples when they were not in session!
It's a win/win proposition!
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