what is bush thinking?
I dunno. However, the good news is that it doesn't look like it'll make it through the House.
What is Rove thinking?
????????????????????????????
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.
I have wondered the same thing regarding the immigration issue. Although I was quite opposed to the idea at first, I think I have started to see Bush's logic on the issue.
I think Bush is thinking that if they are here, they would have no fear of REGISTERING themselves---because it would NOT be illegal to hire them---and the govt would know WHO they are, WHERE they are and have FINGERPRINTS and PHOTOGRAPHS of them (and possibly DNA and retinal scans). We can TRACK them.
However, if they don't follow the REQUIREMENTS for them to stay (or leave within some pre-determined time), the govt also knows WHO they are, WHERE they are and have FIGERPRINTS and PHOTOS (and possibly DNA and retinal scans)---to get RID of them.
They would no longer have an incentive to work underground, and indeed, employers would have no reason to hire them without REAL registration. And once they are REGISTERED with the govt, they are PREMANENTLY IDENTIFIABLE, making it much harder for them to hide (and quicker to remove them) if they are sent back and they try to return to the U.S.
In one sense, I am concerned about my interpretation of Bush's plan: it is good to catch non-Americans who come to the U.S. illegally, but it could be used against Americans.
It kind of reminds me of the "gun control" registration issue. Because of knife and gun registration, Hitler was able to know WHO had guns and knives and WHERE the owner lived. That enabled Hitler to CONFISCATE the Jews' weapons that they could have used to protect themselves against Hitler's gestapo.
For a very interesting discussion of the issue, go to: http://www.jpfo.org
It is the website for Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership and they are ABSOLUTELY PRO-2ND AMENDMENT!