Immigration Reform on Bush Agenda

Washington Post ^ | December 24, 2003 | Mike Allen

[sarcasm]

< SNIP >

Lobbyists working with the White House said Bush is developing a plan that would allow immigrants to cross the border legally if jobs are waiting for them. The sources said the administration also wants to provide a way for some undocumented workers in the United States to move toward legal status.

Bush will try to make the plan more palatable to conservatives by including stricter entry controls, including increased use of technology at the border and steps toward better enforcement of current visa restrictions and reporting requirements, sources said.

< SNIP >

The White House plan is being designed by Bush's senior adviser, Karl Rove, in consultation with the domestic policy staff. Sources said the White House's biggest concern is that the new mechanism not penalize people who had followed the law and reward those who had not. McCain's plan, which was introduced in the House by Reps. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), tries to mitigate that problem by creating a new type of visa for previously undocumented workers who would be allowed to live in the United States legally for three years. Then the workers could apply for the temporary worker visa, which would be the path to a green card, or legal permanent residency. That would amount to a three-year advantage for those who entered legally.

[BOBTHENAILER]

do you think without over half a million signature to overturn SB60, that the Democrats would have voted to overturn it?

Good job on the referndum signatures and yes I did see how fast. What I was referring to was the executive order upon taking office.

[Dante3]

bttt

[Sabertooth]

Good job on the referndum signatures and yes I did see how fast. What I was referring to was the executive order upon taking office.

Different issue. The E.O. was to overturn the car tax, which was illegally implemented by Davis.

Schwarzenegger had no E.O. authority over SB60, which was legislated and signed into law by Gray Davis. Without the referendum, Schwarzenegger had zero leverage over the Dems to throw out the CDLs for Illegals.

That's why he said he'd support the referendum if the Dems didn't repeal SB60.

The reason Schwarzenegger didn't support it immediately is that he's on the record, on numerous occasions, as desiring CDLs for these Illegals, with better background checks. He'd also like to legalize the Illegals as "guest workers" via the McCain Amnesty. According to the WPost article at the top of the thread, so would President Bush.

Big surprise, that. I thought Bush would lean toward the Cornyn Amnesty.

[billbears]

Lobbyists working with the White House said Bush is developing a plan that would allow immigrants to cross the border legally if jobs are waiting for them. The sources said the administration also wants to provide a way for some undocumented workers in the United States to move toward legal status.

And there you have it. We were told by Bush Cheerleading Inc. that we had nothing to worry about. That our criticisms of Bush on immigration were unfounded because he was going to uphold the law and defend against illegal immigration. Of course he was!! He was just going to change the law to redefine illegal immigration to the point there were no longer going to be any illegal immigrants.

I wonder what our illustrious Senatorial 'representation' will think of this. Well being the 'conservative' she is, I know in my heart she will uphold 'conservative' values and do what is best for the citizens of our state < /sarcasm>

[billbears]

Robbing a bank hurts the people that put their money into that bank. Over time it may hurt the taxpayers if the money is not retrieved. Stealing money on a weekly basis by using facilities paid for by tax dollars and receiving welfare money may not require a gun but it's still theft

[longtermmemmory]

it depends on what we want done. Small as in fewer functions or small as in a desk and a chair with a big welcome sign?

Seriously, Protecting the borders IS the job of a national government. We may be able to use tech to make the job less expensive. Whatever is done has to have enforcement. Scanning the hands and iris' of all picked up illegally and putting them on the block lists for legal entry.

[Travis McGee]

The enablers can scream about the civilian border patrols intimidating the "poor undocumented workers", but someday the border cold war will turn hot and legal citizens who are tired of their home being invaded will give the panderers a real reason to scream. Thats the day that the sovereignty of the U.S. will be restored.

That's a big chunk of my next novel, "Domestic Enemies."

[longtermmemmory]

or it will make mexico the 52nd state. Canada is the 51st.

[honeygrl]

Do you come to heated threads just to argue the opposite of what the majority agrees with? You make a good litmus test for me though. I know that if I agree with you, I'm probably wrong.

[Dane]

Do you come to heated threads just to argue the opposite of what the majority agrees with? You make a good litmus test for me though. I know that if I agree with you, I'm probably wrong

Uh no, I just give my opinion. Sorry to bother your mutual admiration ranting society.

[BOBTHENAILER]

Thanks for the clarification, I confused the two.

[dagnabbit]

or it will make mexico the 52nd state. Canada is the 51st.

Even if we did need a thoroughly corrupt third-world ecomonic sink-hole as a State - that's not going to be the result. Mexico is far too large to absorb and assimilate in any meaningful way as a State or other part of the USA. What will emerge from the Bush-cheered merger of our two countries is anyone's guess, but it won't be a larger version of the USA we know.

[honeygrl]

"or it will make mexico the 52nd state. Canada is the 51st."

Just to interject some humor.. There was a guy around various message boards on the internet years ago claiming to be a time traveller from the future. One of his claims was that Mexico would become a US state. (can't remember when though) Of course, the claim everyone was interested in was that the US would have a civil war in 2004 until 2015 (though we wouldn't all realize what was going on until 2008) that ends when Russia nukes all the major US cities. /humorbreak (the guy called himself John Titor)

I love the internet! So much fun stuff on it.

[TheDon]

Day laborers? You mean there are people in this country who will hire illegal aliens in spite of the immigration laws? I'm shocked, shocked I tell you!

[Victoria Delsoul]

Seriously, Protecting the borders IS the job of a national government. We may be able to use tech to make the job less expensive. Whatever is done has to have enforcement. Scanning the hands and iris' of all picked up illegally and putting them on the block lists for legal entry.

According to the Washington Post article, "Bush will try to make the plan more palatable to conservatives by including stricter entry controls, including increased use of technology at the border and steps toward better enforcement of current visa restrictions and reporting requirements, sources said."

GW has also said that he is "firmly against blanket amnesty," or a mass legalization. According to this article, an estimated 8 million undocumented people live in the US. GW's proposal "would create a Web-based job registry, to be run by the Labor Department. Employers would post job opportunities that would be available first to U.S. workers and then to prospective immigrants, who would be allowed to come under a new visa for temporary workers. The other half of the program would be what Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge referred to earlier this month as 'some kind of legal status' for undocumented workers in this country."

We have to remember that this problem began when Clinton was in office. Not only did Clinton slash the budgets of the Border patrol, he actively conspired with a politicized IRS to push through hundreds of thousands of citizenship papers for aliens expected to vote for the Democrats. I didn't see threads and threads criticizing Clinton's actions or trashing the Democrats who are overwhelmingly to blame for this situation. GW didn't create this problem, Clinton did, and GW is trying to solve an almost insoluble problem, which makes it a perfect albatross to lay around the neck of a conservative Republican president. If Bush does too little, some people scream because he hasn't done enough to fight illegal immigration. But if he tries to implement the measures needed to actually deal with the problem, people attack him for violating civil liberties and call him all kind of names.

If someone doesn't want to vote for Bush, they can vote for any of these guys who favors twice as much illegal immigration as GW:

From the Washington Post:

Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.) calls his the Earned Legalization and Family Reunification program. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.) has called immigration reform "another broken promise" by Bush. Former Vermont governor Howard Dean told the Arizona Republic's editorial board that he favors earned legalization for undocumented workers who have been in the country for some time and have committed no crimes, but he sounded a note of skepticism about a guest-worker program like that proposed by McCain.

[gubamyster]

You mean there are people in this country who will hire illegal aliens in spite of the immigration laws?

I guess so & they should be prosecuted for knowlingly hiring an illegal. They are breaking the law the same as the illegals.

[honeygrl]

"Howard Dean told the Arizona Republic's editorial board that he favors earned legalization for undocumented workers who have been in the country for some time and have committed no crimes, "

There is no such thing as an "undocumented worker" (aka illegal alien) who has committed no crimes. They committed a crime by illegally entering the country.

[StoneColdGOP]

The only way to get rid of Rove is to get rid of Bush.

And I'm thinking that's not such a bad idea.

[honeygrl]

Every company I've ever worked for required a copy of my DL and social security card for employment there. Are these companies just not asking for that or do the illegals have fake SS cards and fake DLs?