Posted on 08/07/2004 8:03:56 AM PDT by seastay
We'll punish Bushes at the polls, immigrants promise
Immigrant voters will show their displeasure with the Bush brothers for not doing enough to help undocumented migrants become legal, advocates say.
Leaders of several immigrant and labor rights organizations in South Florida on Thursday accused President Bush and his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, of failing to keep promises to help undocumented migrants legalize their presence.
At a Miami news conference, speakers for the groups said immigrants who have become American citizens will vote against candidates who have not helped advance proposals that would enable illegal migrants to achieve legal status. The proposals are two congressional bills that would put migrant farmworkers and children of undocumented migrants on a track to legal residency and a plan to grant temporary residency to undocumented migrants from Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
''Immigrants are paying attention and, come Election Day, they will cast their ballots for public officials who deliver on their promises, not for those who continue to make empty promises,'' said Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of Service Employees International Union.
Taylor Gross, a White House spokesman, said President Bush is working with Congress in shaping his guest-worker program. Jacob DiPietre, a Gov. Bush spokesman, said his boss was studying the proposal.
Activists at the news conference said President Bush had offered to grant temporary work permits to illegal migrant workers but had done little to advance the project, and had also not objected to Republican lawmakers in Congress blocking a separate bill giving residency to migrant farmworkers.
They also took Gov. Bush to task for not following up on his recent statement that he would be ''inclined'' to support temporary protected status for Haitians. Immigrant advocates said the offer should also be extended to Dominicans.
DiPietre said Gov. Bush realizes only the federal government can grant temporary status.
With the new proposals coming from his homeland security officials, no enforcement of the immigration laws in the interior of the US, these people, although not being granted instant citizenship and a free turkey in every pot, they will be eligible for every benefit available to any US citizen except for voting and drivers ID, yet with the aid of local governments working with the Mexican government, many are being granted these privileges as well, so what are they complaining about, no cranberry sauce on the side?
With all the groups the media is finding that are vowing to "punish" Bush on election day, I'm surprised that the polls show a close race.
CRIMINAL INVADERS want full pardons for breaking our laws.
Did they punish Bill Clinton for not making them citizens?
Immigrants can always go get their FREE HEALTH CARE in Canada or Cuba. They DON'T HAVE TO COME HERE...and I have absolutely ZERO credibility coming here bad-mouthing the President or America. If the leaders in their own countries were great, then why don't they go back???
No. they did not punish Clintoon. However, the republicans are not the party of special interest. Entitlements are what they are after.
Actually it is states like arizona that they are complaining about, where we have prop 200 that is going to be on the ballot out here, and the prop calls for cutting all social and municipal service to those illegal immigrants that have take up residence here in Arizona. I would cut garbage service, cut having to have the country hospitals having to assume that bill for Illegals using the emergency room as free hospital service. Basically it is a bill to discourage the illegal immigrants. It has about a 2/3 majority support here.
I find this a very hollow "threat".
Let me see if I have this straight: people who came here legally are going to vote against Bush because he won't help the people who broke the law to get here?
I would sure like to get some scalps before I check out.
bttt
Yeah, just wait until all those illegal immigrants -- excuse me, undocumented workers -- vote on Election Day. Then Bush will get his comeuppance!
I don't know about this. Most of the legal Mexicans I know seem to admire Bush, and see Kerry as similiar to the members of the rich elitist families that have held Mexico in their death grip forever.
From my experience most do not see Kerry as more than a priveleged girly-man, and they do not generally admire effeminate males.
Just who and what states are allowing them to freely vote? They are not qualified to do so, unless I have lost something here.
Why do they want to punish. He has offered yet more amnesties???
In 1998, for instance, "Kerry on the Record: Amnesty Is OK " voted against the creation of a national registry containing names of U.S. workers who want to perform temporary or seasonal agricultural work, and to require the attorney general to allow more foreign workers into the U.S. for farm work under H-2A visas.
In 2002, Sen. Kerry voted for S.2045, the Abraham foreign worker bill, which nearly tripled the number of foreign high-tech workers.
Amnesty to anyone here over 5 or 6 years (how long does a terrorist live in the US..they have great patience)
Q: Would you support legalizing undocumented immigrants in this country?
KERRY: Absolutely. I supported and was prepared to vote for amnesty from 1986. And it is essential to have immigration reform. Anyone who has been in this country for five or six years, who's paid their taxes, who has stayed out of trouble, ought to be able to translate into an American citizenship immediately, not waiting.
Source: Democratic Primary Debate, Albuquerque New Mexico Sep 4, 2003
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