Posted on 12/24/2003 10:32:04 AM PST by Klickitat
Bush to Propose Broad Amnesty Tell Congress to Say No! We regret having to interrupt your holiday season with bad news on the immigration reform front, but the Washington Post reports this morning that President Bush and Karl Rove-in order to appeal to Hispanic voters-are poised to announce a sweeping amnesty plan during the second week of January. If you like amnesty, mass legal immigration, and the continued unprecedented decline in the American economic standard of living, you'll love President Bush's proposal.
While the details of the plan remain unclear, President Bush is expected to propose an outline modeled after legislation currently pending in the House and Senate, H.R.2899 and S.1461. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Representatives James Kolbe (R-AZ) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ) introduced these bills. This upcoming plan will undoubtedly reflect what President Bush meant when he announced last week at a press conference that he wants to match "any willing worker with any willing employer."
Why Your Help is Needed Now
President Bush and Karl Rove are convinced that this plan will appeal to Hispanic voters without offending his Republican base. In order for Bush to make his immigration proposal a reality, however, he will need to convince the leadership of the House of Representatives to press his plans on their Republican House colleagues who know better.
Here's How You Can Help:
First, send a free faxed message from our web site to President Bush, House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
Follow up your faxes with phone calls. Call the White House comment line at 202-456-1111 and leave a brief message telling the president no to his amnesty plan. Call the Speaker's office at 202-225-0600 and the Leader's office at 202-225-4000 and leave a brief message. Tell Speaker Hastert and Leader DeLay that Republicans should not abandon their law and order principles by advancing the open borders policies preferred by Democrats.
Your faxes and phone calls will be needed continuously over the course of at least the next three weeks. Please ask your friends, family, and coworkers to follow your lead in making their voices heard as well.
Talking Points:
Giving illegal aliens legal status does nothing to improve our national security. In fact it would take years and years to do background checks on the estimated 9-11 million illegal aliens who could be eligible for amnesty. An illegal alien who was amnestied in 1986, after all, later masterminded the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993.
Any guestworker program leading to legal status for illegal aliens is an amnesty and threatens homeland security by encouraging more illegal immigration. Every time an elected official talks about the possibility of granting amnesty to illegal aliens, it says to would-be illegal aliens that they had better get into the United States while the getting is good.
This program would reward people who have cheated the system with permanent residence. This country is based on the rule of law-it should not be manipulated by people who have cheated their way to the front of the line.
The current recovery from economic recession is unique in post World War II recoveries in that it comes without any benefit for American workers-just more offshore job outsourcing, low paying jobs, and an accompanying decline in the nation's standard of living. This new guestworker program may match any willing employer with any willing worker, but for American workers this means being displaced by cheap foreign labor and declining wages and working conditions for those fortunate enough to find or keep a job.
Davis Pulls a Fast One on Lawsuit Over Proposition 187
By Ray Haynes
(The writer is a Republican who represents the 36th Senate District, in Riverside.)
Here is a note to the Federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal: Politics change. One day, the supporters of an initiative are in office and are vigorously supporting that initiative. The next day, the opponents of that initiative are in charge. Governors and attorneys general do not have lifetime appointments like federal judges. Voters sometimes change their minds about who they want to represent them.
In 1997, supporters of Proposition 187, Pete Wilson and Dan Lungren, held the position of governor and attorney general. Two years later, outspoken opponents of Proposition 187, Gray Davis and Bill Lockyer, replaced them.
Some may be wondering why I would make this comment. The reason is simple. Two years ago, the Alan C. Nelson Foundation of Americans for Responsible Immigration, Sen. Dick Mountjoy and I attempted to intervene in the lawsuit challenging Proposition 187 filed by the League of United Latin American Citizens against Governor Wilson (LULAC v. Wilson) in federal court. Our motion to intervene was denied, and that denial was upheld on appeal, with the appeals court noting that Governor Wilson and Attorney General Lungren were doing a fine job of defending the initiative, thank you.
Two years later, we are at risk of losing the entire initiative due to a slick legal maneuver by the governor. He recently asked that the whole matter be referred to "mediation" to see if the matter could be settled. This is a cute trick, and will likely lead to the entire matter being shoved under the rug without the initiative ever receiving its fair day in court.
Governor Davis has said over and over that he opposes Proposition 187. LULAC has said over and over that they oppose Proposition 187. Attorney General Lockyer has said he opposes Proposition 187 and that Governor Davis is his client, and he will do whatever Davis tells him to do.
What a recipe for a sweetheart deal. Send the matter to mediation, which is an attempt to settle the lawsuit, work out the settlement, and dismiss the lawsuit. What settlement would be likely in such circumstances? The answer should be obvious.
In the settlement negotiations, Davis listens carefully to the arguments put forth by LULAC. In the midst of those discussions, he has a revelation. LULAC is right, Governor Davis exclaims!
"I don't know why I didn't see this before. We must dismiss the lawsuit now," he says. "Even my lawyer, Bill Lockyer, tells me this proposition is unconstitutional."
Another cute strategy is to send the case to mediation, and then do nothing. It just languishes on the settlement calendar forever, never to move. Either way, the case goes away. The voters are thwarted, and injustice is done. All in the name of good government and the Constitution.
Does anyone honestly believe that Davis will actually protect the initiative? He has always opposed it. He attacked it throughout his gubernatorial campaign as "wedge politics." He alluded to Governor Wilson's support of the initiative as evidence of racism on Wilson's part.
Davis declared an end to "wedge politics" after he got elected. All of his left-wing supporters thought this meant the end of Proposition 187.
His party has called upon him to dismiss the case. Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante holds daily press conferences attacking the governor for even going to mediation. The speaker of the Assembly, former ACLU director and labor organizer Antonio Villaraigosa, sponsored a resolution at the Democratic Party convention requesting Davis to dismiss the case. The pressure on the governor is tremendous.
Davis took the cautious route. He knows that dismissing the lawsuit would be disastrous. The tactic that he used will allow the whole matter to just die without controversy, or so he hopes. The court is allowing it to happen, either as a conscious conspirator in this attempt to thwart the will of the people, or as an ignorant participant in this unjust outcome.
Proposition 187 was enacted in 1994 with over 60 percent of the electorate of California voting for it. From the moment the initiative won, the left, including Villaraigosa, Bustamante, Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, Attorney General Bill Lockyer, and Davis began to attack those who voted for the initiative as racists. They failed to see the wisdom of the people in the vote—that is, that most people don't believe that if someone breaks the law, they ought to get government benefits for doing so.
Since the initiative has been in court, the left has continued to implement policies that expand the rights of those who are in this country illegally to get government health benefits, job-training benefits, breaks in tuition for higher education, welfare benefits, and other forms of government largesse.
In fact, many of those who opposed Proposition 187 are working to make sure it is difficult to find out if an illegal alien is trying to vote. They are trying to remove the requirements to prove identity or residency as a prerequisite to vote. They are even trying to remove the requirement that people register to vote. An easy way to make sure that illegals continue to get government benefits is to let them vote.
The referral to mediation was a cute trick. The governor may accomplish his goal because there is nothing that would stop him from doing so. The only great mystery in this whole episode is why the lieutenant governor is attacking him. The governor's move seemed like the smartest way to achieve what Bustamante wanted—a complete victory on Proposition 187. Perhaps the whole thing is a show, to make it look like Davis is trying to do the right thing by continuing on with the fight in favor of 187, when in fact he wants to make it go away. Bustamante's protestations would lead one to believe that the governor is sincerely pursuing justice in the appeal.
However, if he were truly seeking justice, he would have allowed the appeal to continue. There is no middle ground between constitutional and unconstitutional, and, for that reason, there is no way to settle this matter unless one side or the other rolls over and either eviscerates the mandates of Proposition 187 or dismisses the appeal.
Either way, the voters lose. I don't know the odds at the local Indian casinos, but I'm not betting in favor of the voters on this one. I think they lost last November.
No, but I believe you are. What do you mean by your term "illegal immigrants"?
Uhhh..that they are "illegal immigrants"?
What do you think this debate is about?
I can't believe you actually asked me if I admitted that "illegal immigrants" are illegal.
Too funny.
How would you know? It is quite possible for one's immigration status not to be legal, and yet behave as a completely law-abiding member of society.
In fact many illegal immigrants are more committed to law-abiding behavior because they know any run-in with law may result in deportation.
They instead constitute, by definition, a class of criminals that has broken the law to cross our borders.
Wrong again. Many DID NOT break any law to cross our borders at all, but merely overstayed their visas, work permits or permits to go to school in this country. The correct response is mass deportation, not mass legalization (or work permits for that matter...).
This is stupid, unworkable and would be polical suicide for anyone who attempted to propose such a thing.
Thank you! I'm all for getting better control of our borders.
But for the life of me, I can't understand the fear and contempt we see here for these poor little poverty stricken people who risked sneaking into this country out of desperation for a better life.
This is truly the ugly face of the radical right Dems use to demonize republicans.
You're not conservative...You're a nut.
Barry Goldwater is/was unelectable
Only if you have an inverted concept of morality.
The Bible says woe unto those who call good evil and evil good.
It also says that in the end times men like Bush would be hated simply because they are good.
Thank you for fulfilling Biblical prophecy.
Excellent point!
This is stupid, unworkable and would be polical suicide for anyone who attempted to propose such a thing.
I don't think the Buchananites have any idea of the cost in money or strain on the moral fabric of our society that their "let's jus build a fence and ship 'em all back to Africa...wait, I'm a hatin' Mexskins today...I mean Mexico" plan would incure. They seem to think that deporting 8 million people will be no trouble at all with no repercusion to our economy or way of life.
And they seem to think that American voters will have no trouble with blowing the limbs off Mexican children as they cross a landmine strewn border.
If conservative means giving up my humanity...then I'm not conservative.
Numbers count; call this morning and pass this on to everyone asking them to do the same. Let our voices be heard over politics!
We can't let these radicals put an ugly face on conservativism.
Thank God Bush is in office. We can get control of our borders without becoming the hateful and meanspirited stereo-types Dems try to paint us as.
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