Bush Faces Early Test on Immigration Policy

Reuters via The New York Times ^ | November 14, 2004 | Reuters

[primeval patriot]

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November 14, 2004

Bush Faces Early Test on Immigration Policy

By REUTERS

Filed at 10:28 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush faces an early test on immigration policy this week as Congress considers legislation denounced by Latino groups as anti-Hispanic and anti-immigrant.

Several provisions that would affect the lives of immigrants and asylum seekers found their way into a bill passed by the House of Representatives to reform the nation's intelligence services.

The bill stems directly from recommendations by the bipartisan commission which investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. The Senate version of the bill does not contain these immigration clauses.

House and Senate conferees will try once again to reconcile their differing bills when Congress reconvenes for a lame duck session this week. The White House is on record as strongly opposing some of the House provisions but it remains to be seen whether Bush is willing to expend any political capital by putting pressure on Republican legislators to drop them.

``The House Republicans think they have a strong hand on this and seem ready to go to the mat. They seem to want to paint immigrants as the bad guys in the war on terror,'' said Angela Kelley of the National Immigration Forum, a pro-immigration group.

Opponents of the House bill say it would make it more difficult for refugees to obtain political asylum in the United States by raising the standards of proof required. It would also make it easier for the authorities to deport non-citizens, including legal residents.

``The bill is the biggest assault we have ever seen on political asylum. If passed, it would make it incredibly difficult for anyone to be granted asylum in this country,'' said Erin Corcoran of Human Rights First.

The bill also seeks to prevent illegal immigrants from obtaining drivers' licenses and would withdraw recognition of ID cards issued by Latin American embassies that many immigrants carry that now allow them to open bank accounts, obtain drivers licenses and even board aircraft.

Mexico has issued over 2 million of the cards, known as the ``matricula consular'' to its nationals, whether they are in the United States legally or illegally, and several other Latin American countries also issue ID cards.

LATINOS DENOUNCE BILL

Four major Latino organizations issued a joint statement last month denouncing the provisions as ``anti-Latino and anti-immigrant.''

``These provisions will have a profound, negative impact on Latinos and other immigrants communities. They will not make us safer and, in fact, may make us less safe by driving a wedge between American communities and law enforcement,'' they said.

Wisconsin Republican Rep. James Sensenbrenner, a leading advocate of the bill, said all its provisions stemmed directly from the report of the 9/11 Commission.

``The legislation enhances security around our borders, and reduces opportunities for terrorists to enter and stay in the United States,'' he said. ``Every provision in this bill that is within the Judiciary Committee's jurisdiction, is tied directly to a specific recommendation made by the 9/11 Commission.''

Dan Stein of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which favors reducing immigration, said the provisions would close loopholes in the nation's defenses by making it easier to identify, track and deport illegal immigrants.

But the 9/11 Commission itself said the immigration clauses were not part of its report.

``We believe strongly that this bill is not the right occasion for tackling controversial immigration and law enforcement issues that go well beyond the Commission's recommendations,'' Commission chair Thomas Kean and vice chair Lee Hamilton said in a letter last month.

Bush won 44 percent of the fast-growing Hispanic vote in the Nov. 2 presidential election, up from 35 percent in 2000 according to exit polls. His administration has said it wants to make immigration reform a major focus of his second term.

However, there is a strong element in the Republican Party that opposes any concessions to illegal immigrants and would like to see restrictions placed on legal immigration as well.

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[primeval patriot]

You're the one who brought up the Maginot Line and mechanized infantry.

[Missouri]

Build it and they won't come.

[SealSeven]

"For example, Russia using a stealth airplane could parachute a commando unit into the US. This commando unit could do anything from surveillance to planting and detonating a nuke."

Forget about Russia's plane.. Remember the Twin Towers and the Pentagon? Of course now that the airports have tightened its security a little, terrorists will most likely use the path with the least resistance. The border.
Take a look at the last debate as the question about illegal immigration was brought up. Look at Bush's face. Does he not have an "oh s**t" look on his face after the question was asked?

We are doing little to nothing for our borders.
What Bush has done equates to putting a band-aid on a shotgun wound. Not enough.
The UAV President Bush mentioned during the debate was outsourced to the Israely army. However, they had to ground the UAV due to budget shortfalls.
I do give him credit in that the US Army now will be using their UAV (one UAV)to patrol the border. This should have happened on 09/11 but it didnt.

If Bush's guest worker program is such a hit, why didnt he push for it prior to the election (Other than 0107)?
The answer is simple, Bush knows the majority of Americans want this stopped at the border and in a sense would have committed political suicide.
Now, he is at it again but this time, he has nothing to lose.

[CaptainAwesome2]

ok, we should spend billions on manpower and technology so that we can catch a bunch of people and send them back just so they can try again to enter our country. that sounds dumb and evil to me.

[Dat Mon]

First off...you can sense the radiation given off by a nuclear device...by a number of very sensitive detectors. Nuff said there.

Now, here is a repost of mine from another thread on 11/10 dealing with same

"There is no solution that can be applied now to an already large problem that will not raise loud objections from somebody.

The most efficient way is to start NOW with ENFORCEMENT by making both the employers and the workers pay a penalty for skirting the current law.

You have to make the penalties for hiring of illegals severe. And you have to have random audits and inspections of EMPLOYERS, conducted by teams of enforcement agents. This will cost money, employers will hate it. Illegal workers groups, and Mexico will protest.

Im talking severe penalties, such that a mid-large company would not want to take a risk. Still, you may not get to the illegals working for small outfits.

For an illegal, the penalty is that anyone who is caught in this country illegally is deported immediately, and is forever barred from entering legally later in a guest worker program. This is enforced by means of fingerprints and photo ID, which is entered into a database.

If this sounds draconian, try getting a top secret clearance to work on a military program. All illegals who are caught should be fingerprinted, and photographed before deportation.

Require that people at hospitals WITHOUT INSURANCE who do not speak or understand English present valid proof of citzenship or visa status at time of treatment. If they do not have proof, they are treated, then released to LEO /immigration for deportation, same rules apply. Of course, some will get fraudulent papers on the black market. Hospitals will protest, so federal funds will have to be provided to hospitals to hire additional staff to enforce the laws. Some municipalities will not want to comply.

Hopefully, the result of these actions is that many illegals will voluntarily leave this country if they can, and start the legal process to register.

Now we get to enforcement at the borders, to insure that these people cannot slip back in later. This is where technology that we currently have is deployed efficiently.

All the steps the feds take must be broadcast loud and clear to the Hispanic community, and to the Mexican government.

Everything above is to START.

With the above in place, then you can start to implement a guest worker program. Otherwise, its the cart before the horse."

[CaptainAwesome2]

you missed my earlier posts which ive been asked not to repeat by a moderator. i favor a more final punishment that would keep illegals from returning. as far as im concerned as long as we just catch a small percent of them and throw them back so they can cross the border again they would be crazy to stop. if i was a mexican id be crossing the border also. we have to do more than that if we want the flood to stop.

[bayourod]

President Bush made his position on guest workers very clear throughout the campaign, including the third debate.

Buchanan and his idiot sock puppet Tancredo tried to undermine the President's reelection by publicizing his guest worker program and calling it amnesty. They failed.

President Bush won decisively. You lost. Get over it.

[FITZ]

You start shooting at the border and political sentiment will turn on behalf of illegal aliens.

There is a lot of shooting going on at the border now --- often the drug cartels carry out an execution on the American side of one of their own. No big deal. Border patrol agents have been shot and murdered --- again -- no big deal. You've got hundreds of illegals dying out there in the desert -- lately many from their coyotes giving them stimulant drugs like cocaine to make the trip over easier but those drugs didn't mix well with over 100 degree heat --- and many of these are pregnant women heading over for their life of welfare checks but just didn't make it. You've got the Mexican police murdering opposing cartel members and about 400 murdered girls and women in just one border town. No one really cares --- I don't think what you say would create some big ripple either.

[Fatalis]

President Bush made his position on guest workers very clear throughout the campaign, including the third debate.

President Bush barely mentioned his proposal to legalize illegal aliens throughout the campaign, and only did so vaguely in the third debate when asked about the subject by Bob Schieffer. Bush has a mandate on a number of issues, such as the War on Terror, the definition of marriage, taxes, and perhaps Social Security reform. Those were the themes that his campaign emphasized, not legalizing illegals. No mandate there, and Bush's legalization will not pass.

Buchanan and his idiot sock puppet Tancredo tried to undermine the President's reelection by publicizing his guest worker program and calling it amnesty. They failed.

It's not clear why you think that some guilt-by-association ad hominem against Tancredo via Buchanan is pertinent. It isn't. Congressman Tancredo disagrees with the President's approach to legalizing illegal aliens, as do most Americans. Yet Tancredo consistently supported the reelection of President Bush, as did most Americans. Buchanan is an irrelevancy.

President Bush won decisively. You lost. Get over it.

LOL! I voted for President Bush.

[FITZ]

Fact is denial of services for Illegals is coming, state by state or at the federal level.

That will end much of the problem. It's the freebies that many of the immigrants are after --- without food stamps, free health care, free education, housing subsidies, WIC, and all the many other handouts --- not so many would bring large extended families that they would have to support by accepting $4-$5 an hour -no benefits kinds of jobs. It's the welfare and other government handouts that makes this country so appealing to the majority of them.

[FITZ]

Crack down on employers, conduct sweeps at day-laborer sites, and use the IRS to track fraudulent tax documents.

Imagine if the employers of illegals were obligated to pay the hospital bills of them and their family members or repay the taxpayers for the costs incurred at the local schools and head-start programs from the families of their illegal employers. These individuals and businesses should have their assets seized until they repay the taxpayers and are fined heavily for trying to break labor and minimum wage laws.

[Fatalis]

ok, we should spend billions on manpower and technology so that we can catch a bunch of people and send them back just so they can try again to enter our country. that sounds dumb and evil to me.

No, you misunderstand. You approach the problem systemically, and make life in America very inconvenient for illegal aliens, by drying up public benefits, employer sanctions, sweeps of day laborer sites, etc. At the same time, you institute Tom Tancredo's guest worker program which requires applicants to apply from their home country. This makes living in America illegally undesirable for illegal aliens, and also gives them a positive reason to leave. If you do this, the flow of illegal alien traffic leaving the country will turn the tide that has been flowing in. This will actually ease the pressure on the borders, making our border enforcement that much more effective.

[Fatalis]

Great suggestion. I like it. Employers of illegal aliens are engaging in the Peculiar Insitution of the 21st Century. They traffic in illicit labor.

[FITZ]

Apparently getting deported even when you want to be has become practically impossible --- look what this poor guy had to do to get deported --- a Middle Easterner no less!

Man runs into library to be deported

HOUSTON Police say an Egyptian national is in custody today after charging his vehicle into the Houston Public Library, in efforts to get deported back to Egypt.

A bomb squad was called to the scene early Sunday evening.

They'd set up a two-mile perimeter around the library to investigate the man's vehicle.

No injuries were reported.

The library building sustained minimal damage.

Houston Mayor Bill White was headed to the scene to assess the situation alongside police.

http://www.kvia.com/Global/story.asp?S=2564130

[Fatalis]

No one really cares --- I don't think what you say would create some big ripple either.

Two words: Rodney King.

[FITZ]

Not so many of their employers would want them or give them the time of day if they actually had to pay for them --- what they really like is the taxpayer subsidized labor they're getting. An interesting bill in California actually would require all businesses to provide their employees health insurance --- it was the hispanic chamber of commerces that were in an uproar over that idea --- they demand access to government programs like Medicaid because hispanic immigrants lack access to health care --- but don't believe in employer provided health insurance --- even though most non-hispanic businesses already provide it to their employees.

[FITZ]

I don't know --- Rodney King riots were different. You've got 400 dead women and girls in a Mexican border town -- and you don't hear much complaint from La Raza over that. But I guess because it's their own government involved in that one.

[Fatalis]

If some Americans, whether government agents or viglantes, start shooting at and killing illegal aliens, a media firestorm would be unleashed that would make the Rodney King incident look like a pinata party. And rightly so, but the unfortunate side effect would be the complete surrender of the moral high ground to pro illegal alien interests.