Bush, Fox, promote plan to ease immigration laws

Knight Ridder Newspapers ^ | 6 March 2004 | Ron Hutcheson

[JackelopeBreeder]

Crawford, Texas - President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox joined forces Saturday to promote Bush's plan for easing immigration laws, as Bush acknowledged that the proposal faces a tough time in Congress.

Standing side-by-side in bright sunshine at Bush's Texas ranch, the two leaders said Bush's plan for a new temporary worker program would help both countries by eliminating the underground market for Mexican workers. The proposal would let an estimated 8 million workers who are in the United States illegally gain legal status as guest workers.

"The people who come to this country make a significant contribution to the American economy," Fox told reporters.

Bush's plan, announced in January, has raised expectations in Mexico and among illegal workers in this country, but it has little chance of passing Congress this year. Republican critics say the proposal would reward illegal immigrants; Democrats complain that it does not do enough to help foreign workers become U.S. citizens.

[Iberian]

Worry about all the other essentials. Pajamas made in US for Arabs %5, Meals provided for Iraq and The sand crabs %40, essencials for our people "PRICELESS".

[txdoda]

That's right, how many Hispanics are legal? What percentage? 82-85% (in which you happily disrespect), You want me to track down the real stats repeated time and again just give me a couple of seconds>>>>>

IN post 67 you told janetgreen that her "stats were a little goofy" (because she stated that whites were now a minority in CA)

My census link shows in 2000 white (non-hispanic) was 46.7 (in 2004 I'm sure it's less)

So why do you keep giving us stats for the country, when we're talking about CA ??

[philetus]

Mexico's Take On Immigration Plan



(CBS/AP) After lifetimes spent finding ways to sneak into the United States, some Mexicans are excited over a new plan by President Bush that may allow them to cross legally for work while maintaining a life in Mexico.

But many worry they will have to compete with a flood of new foreign applicants. Others, discouraged by a U.S. immigration system they believe appears set up to work against them, fear the program could be a trick to catch and deport family members already living in the United States.

Commenting on the Bush proposal Wednesday, Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez called the plan "the end of the beginning, not the beginning of the end" of the debate on what to do about immigration. He said the United States needs a more concrete plan to help migrants and U.S. and Mexican officials would "work out the final details" during the Summit of the Americas meeting next week in the northern city of Monterrey.

Derbez also said Mexico won't be satisfied until U.S. immigration policy guarantees the basic human rights of undocumented Mexicans living in the U.S. with "a program that is all-encompassing."

Reacting to the Bush plan, Mexican President Vicente Fox called immigration "the fundamental theme of the bilateral relationship" between Mexico and the United States.

Fox said it is his government's ultimate goal to try to give all Mexicans living and working illegally in the United States "all the rights that any worker has in that country."

Fox has repeatedly urged Bush to legalize the millions of Mexicans who work in the United States illegally. The money they send home is this country's second-largest source of foreign income, behind oil.

Mexico has long sought a more comprehensive migration accord, but talks on the issue stalled out following the Sept. 11 terror attacks and remained more or less dead in the water until now.

Illegal crossings have become more dangerous in the past few years as smugglers try to circumvent heavy security measures.

On Wednesday, the Bush administration announced a program aimed at allowing migrants with jobs to apply for a three-year, temporary work program. Administration officials say the program will make America safer by helping document the estimated 8 million migrants now living underground in the United States.

During a visit to Mexico City on Wednesday, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said he was confident the plan would be approved by Congress "because it is a security issue."

The program would allow migrants - both those in foreign countries and others living illegally in the United States - to apply for temporary work status if they already had jobs. They could come and go as they pleased, perhaps even living in Mexico but working in the United States.

To many in General Bravo, Mexico - a tiny town, an hour's drive south of the Texas border - the plan sounds like it could be good news. The only permanent residents there are those too young and too old for the trip to the United States. The rest shuttle back and forth, many paying smugglers to get them across the border in sealed trucks or through snake-infested deserts.

Wednesday, a young man sweeping General Bravo's town square - a job he does for 400 pesos a week, about $36 - was skeptical on who might be able to qualify for the Bush guest worker program.

"Don't you think it is going to be tough?" said Alejandro Chapa, 20. "Right now it is really hard to get papers."

It's hard, said Chapa, to find a job without actually traveling to the United States and usually immigration officials want you to show you have enough money to support the move.

"They ask for too much. They even ask that you have money in the bank, and poor people like us don't have anything," he said.

Many Mexicans are also wary of U.S. immigration officials, seeing them as a sure route to deportation. Many complain the requirements to get even a tourist visa to see relatives in the United States are too stringent. Some have spent years without seeing brothers or even parents.

Others simply aren't going to wait for the program, which must be approved by Congress. Chapa already has a job lined up at a Mexican restaurant in San Antonio, Texas, and plans to cross illegally with three friends on Monday. The four will pay a smuggler to help them.

They dream of the day when they could simply apply for papers and cross a bridge over the Rio Grande, entering the United States legally and being protected under U.S. labor laws that are often ignored for illegal workers.

Being able to travel back and forth - a key element of the Bush plan - is something many Mexicans would welcome.

For 21-year-old Jose Guzman, the freedom of travel would mean he could earn dollars in the United States, but live in Mexico - where a U.S. minimum wage salary can buy a house, a car and many other things still out of reach for many poor Mexicans.

"I would work anywhere to be able to come home with something," he said.

Some fear the new program will prompt a flood of Mexican applicants trying to enter the United States.

Cruz Salinas, 69, said half of the young men from General Bravo are working illegally in the United States already, and the rest are trying to find a way to follow them. If the new program is approved, "all the young people here are going to want to go."

Father Esteban Ramirez, a Catholic priest who runs a migrant shelter in the border city of Reynosa, across from McAllen, said the program would clear the way for many Mexicans to finally return home. Many migrants stay in the United States for years because they fear they won't be able to return.

Still, he feared the program would impose a lot of requirements most could not met.

"The problem is in the details," he said.

Elsewhere in Latin America, leaders expressed cautious optimism about the Bush proposal.

"We certainly support anything that leads to greater mobility for those trying to construct a better life in the United States," said Colombian vice foreign minister Camilo Reyes.

In the Dominican Republic, where an estimated 91,000 undocumented Dominicans live in the United States, a spokesman for the president said "Latin American leaders should be celebrating this proposal.

"Most Dominicans who are working in the United States illegally want to regularize their situation and live in peace," said Rafael Peralta, a spokesman for President Hipolito Mejia.

But Manuel Espinosa, a lawyer with immigration firm International Law Office Dominicana, based in Santo Domingo, worried the proposal will spur more illegal immigration.

"If you have a friend living illegally in the States and Bush comes in and makes him legal, you are going to want to go too," Espinosa said.

[Joe Hadenuf]

President Bush is dead wrong on this issue. I hope the Republicans in Congress have the guts enough to oppose him.

Bet they don't. As far as I'm concerned, Republican and conservatives have little to do with each other anymore.

[PRND21]

and about 95% of them will be voting for Democrats.

False.

[Jorge]

Was this supposed to tell me that you agreed with me on Bush being re-elected?"

Actually in the very first post of mine you responded to in this thread, I stated;
"when I add up the pros and cons, Bush wins hands down and I will definitely vote for him."

You were so into the arguing mode that you missed the fact I ageed with you on this point :)

[Joe Hadenuf]

Damn it, what the hell are you talking about?

He's smoken that salad he's talking so much about.

[philetus]

A little different

Mexico’s “New Democracy” Has Not Yet Been Born
The Nation Will Spend the Next Three Years Without a Credible Presidency

By Al Giordano
Part I of a Series: Fox at Half-Life

http://www.narconews.com/Issue31/article811.html


It’s been widely reported that the party of Mexican President Vicente Fox suffered a devastating defeat in the July 6th midterm Congressional Elections.

What has not been well reported, though, is the reason Fox and his political forces got pummeled: Two weeks prior to the July 6th vote, the campaign very suddenly became a referendum on Fox’s three years of delivering Mexico’s national sovereignty to foreign powers, first and foremost those in the United States.

[Iberian]

CA is the 8'th largest country and we're in it. At least we think we are. (No disrespect to other states).
Make a difference and maybe we will feed the other states as well and provide them services that no one will do.
I'm out

[Sabertooth]

Bush's plan, announced in January, has raised expectations in Mexico and among illegal workers in this country, but it has little chance of passing Congress this year. Republican critics say the proposal would reward illegal immigrants; Democrats complain that it does not do enough to help foreign workers become U.S. citizens.

"I certainly hope Congress takes this issue up. But there's no telling what's going to happen in an election year, so it's very difficult to give a date, " Bush said.

Bush took issue with critics who say that his proposal amounts to an amnesty plan for illegal workers. Illegal workers could join the temporary worker program, but they would not have any guarantee of U.S. citizenship.

President Bush is nothing short of a bald-faced liar when it comes to discussing Illegal Aliens.

Always has been, and apparently always will be.

Mr President, stop the lies. Legalizing Illegals = Amnesty.

Do your job: deport Illegals.

Bush is good on many issues, and a destructive, deceitful, malfeasant elitist on Illegals.

Congress needs to pass a law forbidding Bush from meeting with anyone from Mexico, for his own good.

What a treacherous bugger he can be.

[JackelopeBreeder]

Get a clue, slick. I don't care about any legal American whose family name happens to be Spanish. I have too many friends who fit that category. They're Americans, period.

I only care about illegal aliens.

[philetus]

Does this surprise anyone?




The News Story that Changed the Election

http://www.narconews.com/Issue31/article811.html

The decisive factor in the fall of Fox came on a Friday evening, June 27th:

That’s when government prosecutors confirmed the accusation – made on these pages for the past three years – that Fox’s 2000 campaign had been largely funded by the gringos.

On that Friday, the Mexican government’s Specialized Unit Against Money Laundering revealed that, of the $54 million dollars in Fox’s 2000 campaign fund that the unit had investigated, “15 to 20 percent” came from foreign interests, mainly from the United States.

[txdoda]

Its been Freeped?>>>>>>>>

LOL.....check the times.......right after it was posted, over 93% were for deporting.

About 8/9 HOURS later we 'Freeped' it all the way up to 95% for deporting.

Guess you think ALL the immigration polls are FReeped. (even the ones posted after closing)

[navyblue]

My census link shows in 2000 white (non-hispanic) was 46.7 (in 2004 I'm sure it's less)

46.7 per cent is not a majority. Therefore, logically it is a minority. IMHO.

[k2blader]

But you're still voting for him, right? And if so, may I ask why?

(Not an attack--just a couple of honest questions from an interested fellow FReeper.)

[Porterville]

11 million Hispanics in CA DOF.CA.GOV

2,209,000 illegal aliens FAIR

11/2 is roughly 82%.

[KOZ.]

there are several million more mexicans then there are conservatives willing to sacrafice the vote.

[bluefish]

I'm waiting to hear what all the other "straws"are...

Go back and re-read the thread. Heck, go back and re-read the forum. Pay attention. There is no sense me repeating the laundry list of leftist-style pandering engaged in by our President.

But if we give them some degree of legal status under a guest worker program, all of sudden their presence will become a "bomb"that blows up America.

If we reward illegals with legal status, more will come. In fact, more are coming already, just in response to Bush's words.

Regarding a "bomb," I was using an analogy to help you understand that illegal immigration is just a "single puny issue." Illegal Immigration is to Issues as Nuclear Warhead is to Bombs. You didn't do well on the SATs, did you?

And this "threat"; means we should elect a liberal Democrat to the White House. Right.

As fast as Bush is running to the left on a lot of issues, we may already have one in the minds of many Conservatives, and he needs them to win. If they sit out or if he ticks them off too much, he is toast. With respect to the Illegal Immigrant issue, he could lose a lot of the middle, and it won't win him any favor from the left.

I will grant that Bush has done some good things - War on Terror and Taxes. Other than that, I'm scratching my head. He throws the social conservatives a bone every now and then too, mainly on issues a President can't do much about. Those are designed to keep people like you on board.

Nevertheless, if he doesn't quit spending like a drunken sailor and if he continues to ignore the immigration problem, those who are enamored with Bush b/c he is a decent man and those who only vote on the abortion topic will not be enough to keep him in office.

[DustyMoment]

Well, Hos, common sense tells me that if you NEVER start taking action, you'll never get any results. There are TONS of ways to stem the tide of illegals flowing into the US and start rounding up and deporting the others that are here.

But, Hos, you wouldn't know about that wouldja, Hos? All you know is that it just can't be done, isn't that right, Hos? Whatever we can and should do to enforce our sovereign borders is just too tough and we can't handle it, isn't that right, Hos?

Well, while you sit at home brushing up on your Spanish, the rest of us are willing to do whatever it takes to close the borders of our sovereign nation against an illegal invasion from Mexico that is being directed by Vicente Fox. When the last store in America takes down its "Se habla Ingles" sign, you'll know we lost, Hos. But don't start munching your oats yet; the battle is just beginning.

Ya know what I mean, Hos?

[tertiary01]

I'm sorry, but my all my ancestors, came in through Ellis Island. There were no SS# at that time to steal. My Mom's side did make money early through selling land, my Dad's side worked at a dynamite powder factory. Some were killed when it blew up, doing work that now supposedly no one will do.
Remember if NO one will do it, eventually the ones that will, will get their price, or else it WILL become automated.