He's thinking the the immigration problem is one of the largest problems facing our country right now, and must be addressed now.
The scope of the problem is huge, and we just don't have the resources to round up all the immigrants illegally in the US. We don't have the resources to line our borders with troops.
We can beef up the border guard some, and more importantly give them the authority and the backing to enforce the immigration laws. However, this won't solve the problem.
There are too many immigrants already in the country, the border is too large to effectively police, and the benefits of illegal immigration are too great for our efforts to be effective.
If we want to fight illegal immigration we need to shrink the size of the problem.
To do that we need to reduce the number of illegal immigrants in the US. We don't have the resources to search them all out and deport them. However, it's much more managable to have them come an apply for temporary worker status, and then concentrate our efforts on the undesirables.
We need to shrink the numbers comming in illegally and decrease the benefits of being in the country illegally.
A temporary worker program addresses that issue. If the majority of those willing to work get temporary worker status, then it will be much easier to find those businesses that are hiring illegal workers and go after them.
Workers who are being underpaid and forced to work in horrible conditions will be able to complain and get those abuses stopped if they are legal workers. This makes it less profitable and more risky for slimeball businesses who hire illegal immigrants and abuse them to continue to do so.
Bush's program has a chance of shrinking the problem to the point where we might actually be able to make progress on the issue of illegal immigration.
It also makes it more politically palatable to the politicians who have been blocking any effective immigration reform.
The way I see it. We can get hung up on punishing illegal immigrants and not being able to effectively combat the problem, or we can concentrate of the worst part of the problem, and no punish illegal immigrants who meet the requirements that would allow them to enter the country under the guest worker program.
I think Bush's plan is the only plan I've seen so far that has hopes of working.
I think we're going to have to adopts some form of policy that does effectively grant amnesty to many illegal immigrants.
However, we then need to aggressively go after those who don't fall under the guest worker program.
We need to shut down the businesses that hire illegal immigrants.
We need to punish those who attempt to smuggle illegal immigrants into the country.
We also can't just talk about the issue forever, because talking about it does encourage illegal immigration. We need to hurry up and implement it.
Yeah right. Whereas our government has vast resources to protect the borders of other countries around the world, and spend billions on foreign aid, SUDDENLY when it comes to protecting America's sovereignty and America's borders "we just don't have the resources". This doesn't fly. If our government wanted to, it could very easily cut the flow of illegal immigration by 90%+. The Truth is, it does not want to.
Take your transparent open borders defeatism somewhere else or be honest and just admit that you are for open borders.
We can find them now without a guest worker program. Congress has a voluntary program in place by which employers can verify if a prospective employee has a legal right to work in the United States. Simply make that program mandatory and you can identify the shops that are employing illegal aliens.
The purpose of the guest worker program should be an inducement for employers to seek inexpensive labor through a legal venue and to provide an opportunity and incentive for illegal aliens to return to their home countries and get in line for legal admission.
Bush's program has a chance of shrinking the problem to the point where we might actually be able to make progress on the issue of illegal immigration.
The President's proposal can do no such thing because it will reward illegal aliens and their employers for breaking the law. Rewarded behavior is not discouraged.
I agree. These people are already here and working, so it's not like a sudden influx. As for the ones who are not working and have no intention of doing so (the criminal element, for the most part), they obviously aren't going to register. This means that we have some who are okay and have voluntarily registered and identified themselves because they are committed enough to know that it means a job. And then we have a much smaller pool of those who can be simply trucked back over the border when picked up.
Furthermore, this keeps the money flowing to Mexico, which has so far not been very cooperative because it relies on the income from its emigrants,regardless of their legal status. Keeping the money flowing legally would enable us to get more cooperation out of Mexico in dealing with the problem of illegal immigration, people smuggling, and non-Mexican immigration through Mexico.
Sitting around and fantasizing that all illegals will spontaneously vaporize if we just wish hard enough or that we will mount machine guns every two inches and blast them is no solution at all, although many people seem to think it is.