Posted on 01/12/2005 12:50:36 PM PST by GOPXtreme20
Republican to Lead Immigration Revolt Against Bush
By Alan Elsner
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Republican member of the House of Representatives vowed on Wednesday to lead a revolt against President Bush (news - web sites)'s immigration reform proposals and predicted that up to 180 party members would support him.
Bush in an interview with the Washington Times published on Wednesday said he plans to force a debate in Congress this year on his proposal that would allow some illegal immigrants to obtain legal work permits in the United States.
Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo, who heads the House Immigration Reform Caucus, said he was determined to block the legislation. The caucus, which had 71 members in the last Congress, argues for stronger action to stop illegal immigration and a reduction of legal migration.
"Why is this so important to the president?" Tancredo said. "Is it just the corporate interests who benefit from cheap labor? Do they have such a strong grip on our president so that he is actually willing to put our nation at risk, because open borders do put our nation at risk?
"Is it petulance, because we were able to stop it in the last Congress? Why is it so important to give amnesty to people who have broken the law?" Tancredo said.
"I'm willing to lead a fight against this and I would say there are at least 180 members of our Republican caucus who are willing at least to stop amnesty for illegal immigrants," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.
Bush has repeatedly said he views immigration reform as an important issue for his second term. In the Washington Times interview, he said it was near the top of his agenda.
"Look, whether or not you agree with the solution or not, we have a problem in America when you've got 8 million undocumented workers here," he said.
BUSH CONFIDENCE
Bush expressed confidence he could win over opponents, as he did in passing tax reform during his first term. "Initially out of the box, some people said, over my dead body would they pass tax relief ... If I listened to all that, I'd just quit, you know. But that's not the way I think."
But analysts agree that immigration reform could be much more divisive for Republicans since growing numbers of rank-and-file voters are becoming concerned at the continued influx of illegal immigrants across the Mexican border.
"No issue, not one, threatens to do more damage to the Republican coalition than immigration," said David Frum, a former White House speech writer in Bush's first term.
"There's no issue where the beliefs and interests of the party rank-and-file diverge more radically from the beliefs and interests of the party's leaders," he wrote in the National Review last month.
Bush insists he is not offering amnesty to illegal immigrants but Tancredo said that was a "manipulation of language, the kind of thing (former President) Bill Clinton would have done. There is an issue of integrity here and an issue of honesty," he said.
You describe a Dickensian America that doesn't exist. You don't need to go to college to be "educated". You do need to demonstrate valuable prodcutive skills to warrant valuable compensation.
Unlike you, many Republicans don't worship President Bush. We understand that a person can vote for and support a politician, but at the same time not feel the need to agree with that politician on every single issue.
You seem too over the top to be real. But in case you are for real, telling the truth is not a smear. WMTs stock has stagnated since 99, in fact, it first reached 55 a share 7 years ago. If WMT is the top of US business, than business in the US is in trouble.
No thanks. Why don't you go there, since you seem to think President Bush is such a liberal elitist.
Indeed, despite PokerGod's transparent claims of "racism" what we see is a basic Social Darwinism in his ideology and for all of these open borders types as well.
This is about the right of an economic elite to live off of a permanently disenfranchised serf population like a hereditary aristocracy fattening themselves from cheap labor.
WMT is still the biggest company in the world and millions of Americans walk through their store doors every day.
shut up, lefty. Nobody believes your act, or your lies.
This is actually one of the funniest threads I've seen in a long time.
Knock it off.
Yes, people such as yourself who have become overly obsessive about an issue such as immigration, regardless of which side of the issue you're on.
Elites show a lack of ability to think beyond the next quarter in terms of business. But imagine a scenario where a liberal Democrat wins in 2008 by going right on just once issue, immigration. Then the elites would not only have theifr supply of cheap labor diminished, but they will scream in pain when employers have to pay a "health security" payroll tax and top income tax brackets are back to 40%+.
Name one job that a blue collar American can do that an illegal can't.
Bush is out of his head on this subject.
add one more FR to the list
DU or someone who's been thrown out of here before.
Bingo.
Too many Americans feel that they are entitled to a job.
I still don't thinks she has taken a bold stance on this issue.
let's have a system that keeps track of them," she said.
She says track them. Big deal. I want to see them deported.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.